


One never knows what the future holds

by Macracanthus



Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies), Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Friends to Lovers, If polyamory bothers you maybe this fic is not for you, M/M, Multi, Polyamorous relationship (but not yet), Slow Build, Sweden AU, Triad relationship (but not yet)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-01-04
Updated: 2015-02-06
Packaged: 2018-03-05 10:38:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 4
Words: 22,806
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3117014
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Macracanthus/pseuds/Macracanthus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Astrid is a polyamorous young woman with a cheating boyfriend. Hiccup's her best friend who lives with Jack, who is also their friend, and gay - or maybe he isn't. Hiccup is the grown-up in this trio, but sometimes it's Astrid - she has her moments. Jack is often the most immature one but he has a big heart so it's OK. They live in Sweden, because they just do alright? And they are all students, Hiccup is halfway to becoming an engineer, Jack is almost a teacher and Astrid is becoming a psychologist (she has her reasons).</p>
<p>Eventual AstridxHiccupxJack</p>
<p>This is my first try at writing, and english isn't my first language so constructive criticism and feedback is most welcome!¨</p>
<p>Hope you like my story :)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Stockholm, September 2014**

 

**Astrid**

 

She is so completely done. Exhausted to the point where she can’t even understand why the key doesn’t fit in the keyhole in the apartment door. Well, she takes a closer look, of course it doesn’t fit – that key is for the bike lock. Astrid heaves a sigh and unlocks the door with the correct key, shuffles inside and drops her bag on the floor in the tiny hallway. This has been a long day, a long week or even a long summer, that now comes to a close with the 5hour written exam she has just completed. It’s the first week of September and she has already had a massive oral presentation and an exam, that are supposed to cover everything she should know after her first two years of studying to be a psychologist.

Astrid proceeds through the living room to the bedroom and undresses throwing her clothes on the messily made bed, at least she remembered to throw on the bedspread this morning. The shades are still down but enough sunlight filters through so that she doesn’t have to switch the light on. She sits for a few minutes on the bed and just let her thoughts wander.

She’s been preparing for this week since May and now it is over. Well, next course starts on Monday morning, but for now she has two and a half glorious days free and she plans to start with a long running session. This might seem odd since she is so mentally drained, but her body is craving exercise – it has been to long since the last time she had a good run. While she quickly changes in to her shorts and sports top the bounce returns to her step. After gulping down a big glass of water and grabbing phone, earplugs and keys she is out if the door and tying the shoelaces in the elevator on the way down.

The air is warm and it doesn’t take long until she is covered in a light sheen of sweat. Long legs stretch and Astrid’s focus is on her breathing and the rhythmic thumping of running shoes on asphalt. She easily navigates between the people she passes, couples walking hand in hand on the sidewalk, an elderly lady and her tiny dog feeding the ducks and seagulls by the waterside. She is joined by a few other joggers when she turns from the waterside walkway unto a dirt trail that leads her uphill to the long bridge that stretches over the bay and into the more central parts of the city. A few minutes later a sharp turn left takes her downhill to run along the waterside again. There are more people walking here and she has to slow down a bit to avoid crashing into a young family with a toddler in a stroller.

And that’s when she sees him.

He is lying on the grassy slope no more than 10 meters to her right and she goes completely still, breath caught in her throat and heart hammering in her chest. He’s not alone, next to him sits a young woman with long brown hair and a too short dress. Astrid just stares, he’s supposed to be in school and later tonight he had planned to go to a pub with a few classmates. At least that is what he told her last night, when they sat in the kitchen – their kitchen – and had supper. He doesn’t see her, his eyes are on the woman beside him, but she is certain it’s him. Astrid would recognize him anywhere from a far greater distance than barely a stones-throw. He leans up and puts an arm around the brown-haired girl, pulling her towards him to give her a slow but thorough kiss.

And that’s when Astrid’s body suddenly remembers how to move.

She realizes that she is running when her toe catches on the curb and she barely keeps herself from falling face first onto the sidewalk. All concept of time is lost when she suddenly realizes that she is right outside the apartment building, bent over dry heaving and trying to catch her breath. On trembling legs she makes her way up the stairs and into the apartment – their apartment, no his apartment, HIS.

Astrid’s mind is running a thousand miles an hour but at the same time she is completely calm. She needs to get out of here, she needs to go somewhere where she can collect her thoughts and regroup.

First though, she really needs a shower. In the bathroom she stops for a minute and considers her reflection in the mirror. Blond hair in a messy ponytail, cheeks and neck flushed red, drops of sweat making their way along her temples and forehead she looks a complete mess. The look in her eyes is one of determination though, because this will not break her, this is just one idiot of a man who does not understand what he is about to lose, he is not worth any tears from her. She strips out of her clothes and climbs in the bathtub turning the shower on. As the hot water runs over her body she tries to make a plan for what needs to be done now.

Pack some clothes, for school and running. Laptop, phone, chargers and things for school. Hairbrush, toothbrush, contacts and glasses. And the surprisingly small make-up bag that is perched on top of the washing machine behind her. As she washes her hair –lather, rinse repeat – she considers her options on where to go. Her parents place is out of the question, she needs to stay in town for school. She could go to one of her classmates but even though she gets along great with most of them she is not close to any of them and showing up on their doorstep asking to stay for a while would mean overstepping their level of friendship by a mile. So, there is only one place she knows she can show up on short notice and stay for a few days without any kind of awkwardness.

Astrid dresses and packs her things as fast as she can even though it’s highly unlikely that he should happen to come home right now she really doesn’t want to take her chances. She considers making a mess of the apartment, throwing some of his stuff out, breaking a few valuables, but she’s better than that she decides yet closes the door with too much force on her way out. The loud bang that resonates all through the stairway gives her a sense of satisfaction and as she makes her way down the stairs she pulls out her phone and dials.

_“ **Hey Az, how are you?** ”_

The sound of her best friend’s voice makes a tiny crack in her façade of nonchalance and she forces the tears away from her eyes with pure strength of will.

“ _Hi Hic! Well…I was just wondering if maybe we could have that movie night after all? I kind of got bored at home… aaand maybe I could stay over, like old times? If that’s okay with you and Jack of course!”_

She rambles a bit too quickly and she hears a quiver in her own voice that makes her fell small. ‘Please-please- please-please don’t have any other plans!’ She prays silently that he hasn’t made any new plans since she cancelled their scheduled movie night a few days ago when she had thought she just wanted to stay home and go to bed early after the big exam.

“ ** _Yeah sure, I’m not doing anything else so come over! Jack is going out later so it’ll just be us, and of course you can stay over – you know you don’t even have to ask Az.”_**

She feels relieved when she hears his answer even though it wasn’t surprising in the least that she was welcome. Astrid hear him smiling as he talks and it is a comfort to know that her staying over isn’t an issue. Ever since they became friends almost ten years ago they have frequently had sleepovers when they lived with their parents and for a few weeks she stayed at his tiny dorm room while she was looking for a place to sublet. The last year had been different because when she moved in with Eret he thought it was strange that she slept over at a guy’s apartment when she was in a relationship with someone else. Looking back now Astrid had a hard time understanding how she had agreed to not stay over at Hiccup’s anymore just because Eret had a problem with it but somehow it had seemed like a nice thing to do. Her relationship with Eret had made her agree to do many things that she normally wouldn’t do she concluded.

_“Great! I’m just leaving my place now so I’ll be there in…45 minutes give or take, is that OK?”_

_“ **Sure, see you soon!”**_

_“See you!”_

She decides to walk to the subway station, even though it’s only a few minutes by bus and she is carrying a rather heavy trekking backpack. The sky is blue and a few clouds are scattered high above, the scent of newly mowed grass heavy in the air. When she walks past a playground her thoughts are interrupted by children’s laughter and hoots of joy. This could’ve been such a wonderful evening but now she feels cut off from the world around her, she walks in her own little bubble of dark thoughts.

‘Damn him, damn that fucking bastard! How dare he do this to me?’ Astrid’s mind is in a loop of angry ranting. They’ve been a couple for almost a year and a half and the more she thinks about it the more things that she has given up for his sake or changed for him come to mind.

When she steps through the door to the subway train she is furious with him, but also with herself. How could she let herself become this shadow of herself? Well, maybe she is exaggerating a bit, but all in all, if she is completely honest with herself she hasn’t been happy with Eret for quite some time. But that doesn’t give him the right to cheat on her, to lie to her and betray her trust.

Seven stops later she gets of the subway and makes her way out in the sunlight again from the underground. The sudden dazzling light hurts her eyes and she realizes that she forgot her sunglasses at home – at Eret’s place she corrects herself, she has already decided that she doesn’t live there anymore. Astrid Hofferson is not one to easily forgive transgressions and this is completely unforgivable. He’s out of her life, don’t look back only forward.

A few minutes later she punches the familiar numbers of the buzz code and taking the 3 sets of stairs two steps at a time. She catches her breath for a second in front of the chocolaty-brown wooden door. “J. Frost & H. Haddock” is written on the mail slot and she covers the peep-hole with her thumb as she presses the door-bell a few times.

Astrid hears muffled voices coming from inside the apartment and suddenly the door opens and she is looking up into the face of her best friend.

“Welcome Milady, I hope my humble abode is to your liking!” He says with a mock bow and gestures for her to step inside.

Astrid can’t help but smile as she curtsies – holding out a make-believe skirt and sliding past Hiccup into the hallway. “Why, thank you Sir!” she says and slings her backpack from her shoulders onto the floor and Hiccup’s eyes widen as he sees the size of her luggage. She notices his reaction and tries to come up with a good way to start the conversation she knows is necessary.

“Yeah, well, uhm…” good way to start Astrid she thinks not overly impressed with herself.

“Eh, I might need to stay a bit longer than one night…if that’s alright with you, heh.” She fumbles a bit while untying her Converse and looks up to see Hiccup looking at her with a raised eyebrow and the smile he wore when opening the door for her is replaced by a concerned expression.

“Is something wrong Az? Well I can see something is so… do you want something to drink? We can talk in the kitchen; I’ve got water, juice, cider…uhm…beer…” He has gone into the kitchen and started looking around for beverages, she can hear the clinking of bottles from inside the refrigerator as he searches for something more to offer her.

She follows him and takes a seat on one of the four chairs that surrounds a rectangular table of birch wood. One of the walls is painted a muted blue color but otherwise the kitchen interior is a collection of creamy white and birch. The window lacks curtains but someone (she suspects its Jack) has hung a collection of Christmas lights shaped like snowflakes from the curtain rod. On the windowsill are one pink and purple orchid and a clutter of papers and small gadgets that doesn’t have any better place to be. The kitchen counter is surprisingly clean and holds one regular coffee maker, Jack special espresso-pod-machine-something and a stainless steel water boiler. An old microwave oven is crammed into a corner next to a plate rack full of clean dishes.

“ _Do you maybe have something stronger than beer? Anything will do, I just need something with a bit more bite_.”

She smiles apologetically at the inconvenience she causes him and looks out of the window. It’s not much of a view, mostly the red-brown brick façade of the house on the other side of the street and a few trees, she believes it’s maple trees. Above the sky is still blue but the sun is set a little bit lower than when she went for her run. This has been one incredibly long day Astrid realizes as she glances at her phone and sees that it’s not even 6 o’clock yet.

“ ** _…something stronger, hmmm… I have to ask Jack he’s the one with the liquor resources.”_**

He walks out of the kitchen and knocks on the bathroom door.

**“ _Ey Frosty! Astrid is in need of some kind of alcohol apparently, is it ok if she grabs something from your collection?”_**

She can hear a muffled response that is apparently affirmative because Hiccup comes back and opens one of the kitchen cabinets revealing a collection of bottles with a range of color from clear to amber.

“ ** _So, I’m just gonna leave the decision making to you_** “ he gestures to the bottles and then proceeds to the counter to fill up the water boiler intending to make himself a cup of Tea.

 _“Thanks!”_ Astrid stands up and gives the content of the cabinet a closer look, deciding on vodka to mix with the juice that Hic mentioned earlier. “ _Tea Hic? Seriously? Am I supposed to drink alone, do you realize how pathetic that is_?” she says with a pout. The tone is intended to sound joking but it comes out almost whining. She knows that’s not nice of her and that he’s not a fan of liquor but right now she doesn’t care.

He sighs deeply and frowns at her. She gives him a look of innocence and tilts her head “ _Sorry_ ”.

**“ _Fine, I’ll take one beer instead”_**

She resumes her place at the table and he sits down opposite her. Astrid takes a mouthful of her concoction and makes a face, it’s not good but the gentle burn of alcohol makes its way to her belly and she relaxes a bit. Hiccup scratches his thumbnail on the label on the bottle in front of him – light beer she notices and the corners of her mouth twitch into a small smile.

**“ _So what’s up Az? You want to talk about it or would you rather talk about something else for a while?”_**

She looks up into big green eyes that make her feel a little scared. Not that she’s scared of Hic, it’s just that she knows that this conversation will make her cry and she hates that. Normally she is strong, so, so strong. Astrid hates crying in front of others, there are only a handful of people that she has let herself be vulnerable in front of and one of them is the young man sitting across from her right now. And when he looks at her like that, attentive with compassion written across his face, she knows that it’s time to talk about what has happened today.

She takes a deep breath.

_“Eret’s cheating. I saw him today when I was out running, he was with a girl and he kissed her. It didn’t look like it was the first time either they looked comfortable together, like a couple.”_

Astrid looks at Hiccups stunned expression and she continues.

_“They didn’t see me and I went home, got my stuff and came here. Before that I had the most excruciating exam of my entire life and I feel completely empty and I don’t have anywhere to live.”_

She continues a little too quickly.

 _“So that was my day, how was yours?”_ She makes her lips form a fake nonchalant smile and gulps down another mouthful of vodka-and-juice.

He looks at her in complete chock, scrubs his hands across his face for a second and tries to come up with a good response to what she has just told him.

 ** _“Oh, my God Astrid! I’m.. I don’t know what to say? I’m so sorry; I can’t believe Eret’s such an idiot!”_** Hands tugging his hair back and leaving it standing in messy spikes, he looks at the ceiling for a moment then back at her. **_“Regarding the living situation – you’re staying here, for as long as you need, okay?”_**

_“Thanks, but are you sure Jack’s okay with that?”_

**_“Yes, of course he is! You’re his friend to you know, and if it’s one thing I know about Jack it’s that he will do pretty much anything to help a friend out.”_ **

Just as Astrid was going to say something they heard the bathroom door opening and a moment later the aforementioned young man made his appearance in the kitchen.

 **“Hey Az!”** He walked up to Astrid giving her a quick hug and proceeded to pour himself a glass of something from the cabinet Astrid had previously raided. Astrid wasn’t really a touchy-feely kind of person but Jack was so she hugged him back and smiled.

 **“So, what’s up?”** He leaned casually against the kitchen counter and took a drink from his glass.

 ** _“Do you mind putting some clothes on; we’re kind of having a serious conversation here?”_** Hiccup rolled his eyes his boxer clad roommate.

 **“Oooh, am I making you uncomfortable Hic, afraid you can’t handle _all this_?”** He gestured to himself striking a rather daring pose. **“Am I distracting you mister Haddock?”** He sauntered over to Hiccup and gave him a cheeky grin.

_“ **Oh, you wish Frosty!”**_

**“Eh, you’re not really my type you know, too skinny!”** He grabbed one of Hiccups slender arms and held it up for inspection. **“I mean what is this Hic? This can’t keep me warm, this is nothing to hold onto in a storm? I need a real man!”** Hiccup struggled out of his grasp and lunged at him but Jack made a graceful escape just out of reach.

**_“Ok, seriously though Jack, Astrid has had a really bad day so maybe you could act like an adult for just a moment?”_ **

**“Oh, I’m sorry Az”** he turned to Astrid with a concerned expression. **“I’ll go put on some clothes and when I come back I’m all ears, alright?”**

When she smiled and nodded he made his exit and Hiccup sighed and rolled his eyes in Astrid’s direction.

**“ _That guy, sometimes he just… UGH!”_**

Astrid couldn’t help but laugh at that. “ _It’s no big deal Hic, I don’t mind him, honestly; you two make a pretty good distraction from thinking about that asshole I live with.”_ She took another drink, realizing two things; 1) her glass was now empty 2) she was a little bit tipsy, the drink had been stronger than she thought, or maybe the day she had had taken its toll on her. _“I just, I don’t know, I think maybe this isn’t all bad. Or…”_ she started twirling her fingers in hair, pulling out the hair band to transform the ponytail into a braid. _“..or. If I’m completely honest with myself I realize that I haven’t been happy for quite some time now.”_

Hiccup looked at her while he fiddled with an old receipt that lay discarded on the table. He nodded thoughtfully at what she had to say.

Astrid continued.

_“I thought it was mostly due to the amount of schoolwork that I’ve had, you know I’ve been stressing about the oral presentation and written exam I had this week.”_

Another nod. A slight furrowing of his brow.

“ _And staying at my parent’s for an entire month this summer might not have been the best for my mental health, even though it helped me focus on studying. But I realize now that I haven’t been feeling – or acting – like myself for a while and I think one reason. No, the biggest reason is Eret, or our relationship.”_ She pressed the palms of her hands against her eyes until she saw stars under her eyelids. _“Maybe I’m not comfortable with the person I’ve become due to this relationship. I… I think I saw that I was changing, but I kind of explained it to myself as part of becoming an adult?”_ She could feel her voice quivering a little and she bit her lip to keep from crying.

She didn’t look at Hiccup, instead she leaned her elbows on the table and put her face in her hands, feeling tears burning behind closed eyelids.

 ** _“Az…”_** she heard the warmth and concern in his voice and that was the last drop for her, now she was sobbing despite herself. **_“Az, I…I’ve noticed that you’ve been acting a little different the last couple of months – no, maybe longer – anyway…”_** she heard him shift in his seat but refused to look up, refused to let the tears fall even though she had a feeling they already were. Astrid felt a hand on her shoulder gently rubbing and realized it was Jack since when Hiccup continued to speak she could hear that he was still across from her. **_“…I thought it was something you wanted, that you were moving on or something.”_** At that she looked up at him, tears falling from her eyes making her vision a little blurry.

 _“Moving on?_ Confusion in her voice. _“What do you mean ‘moving on’?”_ She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and looked at Hiccup, then at Jack sitting on her right with impossibly blue eyes full of compassion.

Hiccup looked at her and she could see he was struggling to formulate his thoughts into words.

 ** _“You’ve been distant, not wanting to hang out as much as you used to. You haven’t stayed over since forever, or now that I think about it; not since you and Eret moved in together. And since for as long as we’ve known each other you haven’t let anyone make decisions for you, so I just thought that maybe you just wanted to move on to a new phase in life?”_** He took a long swallow from his drink and looked at the tabletop. **_“I’ve missed you Az”_** green eyes looked up from the table to meet her blue. **_“I’ve missed you a lot and I’m sorry that I haven’t been more observant, that I didn’t see that you’ve been feeling down.”_**

 _“It’s okay Hic, I don’t think I even realized I was feeling down myself, I’ve just been feeling off.”_ She looks from one friend to the other, from a concerned green gaze to an equally concerned blue and back to green again. _“I’m sorry if I’ve been distant that was never my intention, I don’t want to move on, you’re like a brother to me Hic, you can’t get rid of me that easily”_ she tries to smile to lighten the mood a little, she doesn’t like this heavy feeling that has settled in the room. _“And you..”_ she turns to Jack _“you are my annoying little cousin aren’t you?”_ she smiles and gives his shoulder a light punch.

Jack returns the smile and decides to help her lift the feeling in the room by punching her back.

**“Who are you calling little ‘cuz’? I’m the older one, a whole month! You’re just a tiny little thing aren’t you? A whole month younger and one inch shorter, practically a toddler compared to me!”**

She scoffs at that _“Pfft, PLEASE; it’s 25 days and half an inch mister, we are practically clones – well if you could choose a more realistic hair color that is!”_

 ** _“_** **Yeah, and we even have the same taste in men don’t we? Tall, buff and dark, right?”** He laughs but immediately notices the change in the room, they had just managed to lift the atmosphere but now it dropped to subzero in an instant. Astrid’s face falls from a somewhat strained but happy smile to despair in a second and Hiccup groans an annoyed **_“Uuugh, Jaaaack!”_** But it’s not Jack’s fault, he wasn’t present when Astrid told Hiccup about Eret’s cheating.

 **“Whaaat?!”** confusion evident on his face, he realizes it was something he said but doesn’t understand what.

Astrid stands and walks over to the kitchen counter needing to make her hands busy she starts to prepare a pot of Tea at the same time as she fills Jack in on the situation.

_“Well, my current ‘tall, buff and dark’ is apparently a cheating bastard.”_

She hears Jack gasp behind her and she continues talking while she sets three mugs on the table and puts the pot down on a pot coaster in the middle of the table. _“I saw him today when I was out running, he was with some girl and they seemed quite lovey-dovey and he kissed her. Sooo I decided I’m done with him. That’s the gist of it.”_ She tried to keep her voice light since she really didn’t want to cry again. Eret wasn’t worth her tears.

Jack just gaped at her, mouth opening and closing a few times before he got himself together and sat down again next to Astrid.

 **“Gods Az, I’m so sorry.”** A hand on her arm and a determined look on his face. **“If you want some help with thrashing his place just tell me, or some other kind of revenge, I’m on board.”**

Hiccup sighed and leaned towards them over the table, fixing Jack with his glare. _“ **We’re not thrashing his place Jack, come on!**_

Jack ignored him and kept his eyes on Astrid.

 _“Yeah, I think Hic’s right Jack…”_ Jack rolled his eyes at that and huffed. _“I’m tempted to get some kind of revenge as well I promise, but I think I’ll feel better by holding my head high and just get out of there with as little show of emotion as possible. To show him that he can’t affect me, to show him that I don’t care about him. Even if that isn’t really true, I don’t want to let him see that this hurt me, okay?”_

She gives Jack a pleading look, hoping that he understands her and he nods.

 **“Mm, I understand that Az. But you know I’ll help you anyway I can right?”** he gives her shoulder a reassuring squeeze.

 ** _“About that Jack…”_** Hiccup cuts in **_“… I offered Astrid to stay here for as long as she needs, that’s okay with you, right?”_**

 **“Yeah, of course!”** He catches Astrid’s eye and smiles at her, suddenly looking eager at the prospect of another roommate. **“You can sleep on the couch tonight, right? Like you have before, and tomorrow we’ll take a trip to IKEA to get you a bed and stuff! We’ll just clean out the dining room, it’s not like we’re using it anyway – right Hic?”**

Hiccup smiles at Jack’s enthusiasm. **_“Sounds good.”_**

Astrid can’t help but smile and give Jack a big hug. “ _Oh, thank you! Thank you so much!”_ She gets up and walks over to Hiccup hugging him as well. “ _Thanks Hic, I don’t know what I would have done without you.”_ She turns to Jack _“or you – ‘cuz’.”_ She smiles at him and he sticks his tongue out at her playfully.

 _“Weren’t you planning on going out tonight Jack?”_ She suddenly remembers.

 **“Eh, I rather stay here and hang out with my two roommates.”** He says after a moment’s consideration and grins, suddenly jumping to his feet and bouncing a little like an exited child. **“So let’s start shall we?”** he skips, _skips_ , from the kitchen into the dining room immediately starting to move things around.

Hiccup and Astrid look at each other and giggle at the snow haired man’s eagerness and Astrid rises from her seat to join Jack in the other room as Hiccup collects the dishes and puts them in the sink.

Astrid pauses in the doorway and looks at Jack putting piles of paper and old newspapers into garbage bags that he seems to have conjured from thin air. She lets herself take a moment to settle, this day has been so long, it feels like this morning’s exam happened a week ago. It’s been an emotional rollercoaster but she can’t help but feel a little excitement at this new development that is her moving in with Hic and Jack. She is grateful that they have such a big apartment, which is thanks to some relative of Jack’s that decided to move from the city when he retired and offered Jack to sublet his place if he wanted. Which of course he did, and now he and Hiccup had lived together for two years in this place.

It is a two bedroom apartment with a kitchen and a small dining room. The living room is rectangular and just big enough for the large sofa and armchair, coffee table and a few bookshelves that occupy one of the walls. The wall opposite the sofa is dominated by a flat screen TV that is neither big nor small, and a set of shelves underneath that holds a CD-player, DVD-player and a few other appliances that are necessary for a living room. The bathroom is surprisingly small and after a bathtub, a washing machine, a sink and a toilet seat had been crammed in there, there is just room enough for one person to stand.

Astrid jumps out of her thoughtfulness when Hiccup suddenly appears next to her and exclaims.

**_“No, Jack! No, no, no, you can’t just throw things out like that, we have to recycle, geez! Paper in one bag, cardboard in another! And, OMG, you can’t put plastic in there; let me do that. You and Astrid start disassembling the table, okay?_ **

Astrid laughs at Jack’s reaction as Hiccup shoos him away with a wave of his hand after taking the large garbage bag from him. Jack on the other hand struts out of Hiccups way and salutes him with a **“Sir, yes Sir!”** this earns another eye roll from Hiccup and a snort from Astrid.

**“Come on Az, you heard the Chief! Commence table disassembling immediately!”**

**_“You’re such an idiot Jack, it’s a good thing you are such a looker otherwise someone probably would have killed you by now!”_** Hiccup can’t hold back the smile that emerges as Jack switches from a look of mock sternness to giant doll eyes and adorable smile in the blink of an eye.

 **“You think I’m pretty! Awww, I like you to Hic!”** He flutters his eye lashes at Hiccup and gets another eye roll for his trouble.

**_“Come on. Table. Now!”_ **

_“Yes Sir!”_ Astrid and Jack share a laugh as they start with their assigned project.

Three hours later the dining room is empty, table disassembled and deposited in the storage room in the basement, five bags of garbage put in their respective recycle bins in the parking lot outside. The room has been vacuumed, the windowsill dusted and Astrid finds herself rather pleased with the fact that this is now _her_ room. The guys have said their goodnights and she yawns as she removes her contacts and places them in their saline solution. Astrid brushes her teeth and places the toothbrush in an empty mug in the bathroom cabinet; it’s her own mug – she smiles at that – she got her own mug, its red.

As she changes her clothes into an oversized t-shirt and deciding to not bother with shorts, underwear is enough, she can barely keep her eyes open. She’s asleep two minutes after her head hits the pillow.

 

 

 

 

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In this chapter we get to know the characters a little bit more, and Hiccup and Jack will also have their turn in the spotlight.

**Stockholm, September 2014**

**Astrid, Hiccup, Jack**

 

**Hiccup**

It’s too early. When did he even get to bed last night – was it 1 o’clock in the morning? And now it’s (a quick look at his phone) half past eight. Seriously? And it’s Saturday. He flops onto his side and puts a pillow over his face to block out the sunlight that is pouring in through the window, at least there aren’t any seagulls shrieking outside; although he kind of misses that in a way it’s the sound of home. Since he moved in to this place the sound of home is traffic and the occasional bang in the wall as Jack tosses and turns in his bed on the other side of the wall.

He tries to go back to sleep but it’s impossible, his thoughts are apparently not going to cooperate this morning.

So yesterday was eventful.He had been really glad that Astrid had changed her mind and decided to come over but that had soon turned to concern and anger at what Astrid had to tell. And now she is staying here? Well, that’s unexpected, but nice, he has missed her and it’ll be nice to have someone else in the apartment aside from himself and Jack. Not that he has a problem with Jack, not really, he’s his best friend – Astrid aside – and they get along fine. It’s just that lately it’s been just I little bit uncomfortable _._

He turns over on his back and groans into the pillow.

Jack, damn him, it’s not his fault really he hasn’t done anything wrong. But somehow along the way the joking comments have started to sting. Why should Hiccup care if he isn’t Jack’s type? Why is his heart stuttering when Jack looks at him with those big blue eyes, when he really looks at him and Hiccup feels like the world suddenly stops and he just wants to lean in and…NO!

He flops onto his stomach instead and hears Jack on the other side of the wall mumbling something in his sleep and banging something into the wall, his knee probably.

This – this feeling, crush? Attraction? Urge? No, not urge, and crush is a bit too strong a word – that he is having is annoying as hell. Hiccup realized a few years ago that he wasn’t totally straight; it doesn’t really bother him even though he was surprised at the time. He’s always prided himself on being a logical person and there was simply too much evidence pointing towards this conclusion to ignore so he just accepted it as a fact. But since the few relationships that he has had has all been with girls it’s not something he goes around talking about. It’s not that he tries to hide it; he just doesn’t talk about that kind of thing very much. And he isn’t sure himself of how he feels, he has no need to put a label on himself.

So, he has only had romantic feelings for women, or maybe that was true until recently – damn Jack and his tendency to mess things up for Hiccup! But he finds himself attracted sexually to all kinds of people; it’s more like different aspects of a person get him hot. He finds himself flustered over beautiful eyes and lips, the curve of a woman’s waist. Nimble hands with long flexible fingers, and a sense of humor. And _honestly_ – a nice ass is his greatest weakness regardless of whatever person it belongs to. But he isn’t one to engage in purely sexual encounters, he wants – needs? – the romantic aspect as well, so he lets those feelings of attraction and lust come and pass without paying them much attention.

And then Jack has to make things difficult for Hiccup, prancing around at home in his underwear showing off that toned stomach and surprisingly feminine arc where his waist ends and his hips extends into the soft curve of his ass. Hiccup just wants to run his hands all over that display of pale skin, letting his hands slip under the hem of Jack’s boxers to cup those butt cheeks, pull the other man close and kiss him until they’re both out of breath. _’ Damn!’_ He is not supposed to think like that, it only makes things awkward.

And now he’s hard. ’ _Dammit!’_ He tries to think of something else, willing it to go away.

Okay, so fixing stuff for Astrid is the top priority today, and maybe get her stuff from Eret’s place. Or perhaps it’s better to wait until Eret isn’t home for that, she has probably brought enough things to last her a couple of days at least; that backpack was rather impressive. And he needs to go to the grocery store today; this week is his responsibility food wise, Jack is on cleaning and washing duty. He could also take a look what they are supposed to do in class the following week – he likes being prepared – but that’s not a priority since the semester has just started and he is already slightly ahead of the curriculum.

He takes another look at his phone; ok 9:15 that is an okay time to get up isn’t it? He decides that it is and sits up, hunching a bit to avoid hitting his head on the ceiling. It had taken him a while to get used to sleeping in a loft bed but now he almost never hits his head anymore, almost never. His room isn’t small but he opted for the loft bed anyway to gain more floor space. The walls are cream colored and the curtains on the window are long and made of faded green linen. Under the window a large desk is situated, cluttered with books, papers and racks of pens and brushes, and perched on top of three rather boring-looking books sits a laptop. The space under his bed is occupied by his bike, his pride and joy; too liable to be stolen to leave outside. It is the most expensive thing he owns. He searches his drawers for something to put on, deciding upon a plain white T-shirt and the same jeans he wore yesterday. He realizes the world seemed a bit blurry and finds his glasses on his desk. He isn’t almost blind like Astrid but he needs glasses or contacts to avoid getting a headache at the end of the day. He opens his bedroom door as quietly as possible and proceeds in to the bathroom after waving good morning to Astrid when he found her awake and fiddling with her phone on the couch.

 

**Astrid**

She wakes up to a cramp in her neck, blinking a few seconds before she remembers where she is and why. ‘ _Uuuuuh, Goooood!’_ The living room is bathing in sunlight and it’s hurting her eyes. She squints at her phone and notices two things; 1) its 9 o’clock 2) she has 12 missed calls and 7 texts.

Of course they are all from Eret, it’s a good thing she remembered to turn the sound of when she went to sleep. She rubs at her eyes making lights dance behind her eyelids and reaches for her glasses which are exactly where she left them on the living room table. She needs to keep track of where she puts them because looking for them without contacts on is a hassle.

_‘Ok’_ , she sighs, ’ _let’s see what he has to say’._

***01:45: Hey Babe! I’m home now, where are you?***

***02:11: Babe? I’ve been trying to call you, where are you? I’m starting to get worried!***

***02:30: Astrid? Seriously where are you? Pick up!***

***02:37: Are you at Hiccup’s?***

***02:46: Astrid? COME ON!!!***

***02:53: Fine, could you give me a call so that I know you’re alright at least?***

***03:07: I’m so done with this, call me – don’t call me I don’t give a damn. Maybe you should just stay where you are wherever that is.***

She almost feels sorry for him, part of her sympathizes with his worry for her but then she reminds herself of what she saw yesterday and she doesn’t feel sorry for him at all, let him worry!

But she really needs to talk to him, let him know that they’re over – _so over_ – and arrange for her to come by and collect her things. Astrid hears a door opening and a tired looking Hiccup appears in the hallway, she waves at him and he gives her a small smile and waves back before disappearing into the bathroom.

_‘Okay, focus Astrid! It’s best to just call Eret and get it taken care of.’_ She’s never been one to shy away from conflict. _‘Just get this over and done with and you can focus on moving on, this is just something that has to be done now, no time like the present!’_

Okay, its 9:23, maybe it’s better to wait I little while to wake up properly and Eret’s probably still sleeping considering he was up at 3 o’clock apparently. Not that she cares about waking him up really but it would feel better doing this dressed and feeling in control. She wakes from her brooding when she feels the couch dipping down and moves her legs out of the way so that Hiccup can sit more comfortably beside her.

**_“So, did you sleep well? How are you feeling today?”_ **

She sees that he has cleaned himself up a bit because he looks more awake now, hair somewhat less of a mess, and the faint smell of mint tells her that he has brushed his teeth.

_“Yeah, I slept surprisingly well actually, but I got a not so nice start of the day.”_

Astrid holds her phone out to him so that he can read the texts from Eret.

_“ **Oh, so you didn’t tell him anything yesterday? I mean leave a note or text him?”**_

He hands her the phone back, absentmindedly flexing his left foot repeatedly as he often does in the morning.

_“No, no I didn’t. I just didn’t know what to say, but I’ll call him in a little while to break it off, and see when I can get my stuff back.”_ She glances down _“Ankle bothering you?”_

**_“Mm, it’s always a bit stiff in the morning you know.”_** He sighs, and she nods her head thoughtfully.

_“You want to join me for a run later? Might be good for you? Are you doing your stretches?”_ She furrows her brow at him at that last statement.

**_“Mm, maybe not today I think we’ll get enough exercise with the other things we have planned, bringing Jack to IKEA is a full day event – you will be surprised how easy it is to loose a grown man at that place.”_ **

He smiles softly.

**_“Maybe I should try to leave him in the play area with the other kids. And yes MOM, I’m doing my stretches but it’s still stiff in the mornings.”_ **

Hiccup stands up and stretches a little turning to Astrid:

**_“So, you go ahead and call Eret and I’ll go wake Jack up and then we’ll get ready and leave, ok? Oh and breakfast of course, and Jack needs his caffeine.”_ **

_“Ok, I just want to shower and dress before I call him”_ Hiccup raises an eyebrow at that. _“I want to feel good and collected, if I call him like this…”_ she gestures to her wrinkled T-shirt and lack of pants, somehow managing to include the state of her hair and the glasses as well _“..I’ll feel all naked and exposed.”_ Astrid wrinkles her nose. “ _And I need to take some measurements in the room so that we don’t get anything that won’t fit in there.”_

**_“Yeah, okay, you do that. You know where the towels are, and the measuring tape is in one of the cabinets in the hall, the one closest to the front door.”_** He turns and leaves Astrid to do as she pleases.

                                                                                                                           

 

**Hiccup**

He knocks lightly on Jack’s bedroom door. No answer, he knocks a bit harder.

**“ _Jack, it’s time to get up!”_**

He knocks one more time but he knows he won’t get an answer; Jack is quite the heavy sleeper. So he opens the door and lets himself in. The room is slightly darkened due to the fact that the blinds are down but the string of small lights that Jack has put up all around the walls just below the ceiling are lit. The walls are painted a muted blue color and on the walls Jack has hung a large collection of framed black-and white photos; showing him and his friends and family in different settings. The snow haired man doesn’t have a desk in his room, opting instead to study perched on his bed or at the kitchen table. Hiccup steps carefully, avoiding the piles of discarded clothes that litter the floor, and when he looks up again his eyes fall on one impossibly long, slender leg that has escaped the covers.

‘ _Gods, Jack, are you doing this on purpose?’_ Hiccup sighs to himself and forces his eyes away from the leg to focus on Jack’s face instead. He looks even younger when he’s sleeping; face calm and dark eyelashes gently resting on lightly freckled cheeks. He has actually got a slight tan Hiccup realizes – he didn’t think it was possible for Jack to get tanned he’s always so pale but now his skin has a slight golden touch.

Hiccup wants to reach out and caress that face with the back of his hand; he wants to run his fingers through those white locks that rest on the pillow. But he doesn’t, instead he clears his throat and shakes Jack’s shoulder lightly.

**_“Jack, it’s time to wake up!”_ **

No reaction. Hiccup tries again, a slightly firmer shake of Jack’s shoulder.

**_“Jack, come on, it’s time to get up!”_ **

Now the sleeping man stirs and cracks his eyes open to peer at Hiccup with the covers pulled up all the way to his chin.

**“No! I don’t want to!”** He pouts.

Hiccup huffs at that, seriously – pouting? Why is he even attracted to this _child_?

**_“Come on, we’ve got lots of stuff to do today, we need to get started.”_ **

Hiccup turns to walk out of Jack’s room to get started on preparing breakfast but he’s stopped by a firm grip on his wrist yanking him back and pulling him down onto the bed, on top of Jack just to make matters worse for Hiccup.

**“No! We’re staying here, just for a few minutes…pleeeeease?”** Jack whines and puts his arms around Hiccup’s torso effectively pinning him on top of him.

Hiccup squirms, trying to get away but Jack is stronger than he looks and he can’t get out of the arms circling him. ‘ _Oh no, no, no, no’_ this is uncomfortable, well it really isn’t, which is the main problem. He can feel Jack’s body pressing against his own through the covers, firm and warm; and those arms feel nice around him. Hiccup stops his struggling when he realizes that the only effect it has is that he’s rubbing his groin against Jack’s hips and that is really not helping the situation, not helping at all.

**_“Hmmmpf, Jack! Let me go!”_ **

He finally manages to escape by putting his hands on the mattress and pressing himself away from Jack with all the strength he can muster and quickly jumping out of reach of the flailing arms of Jack.

**_“So, come on, we are going to buy stuff for Astrid, remember? Going to IKEA? I know you want some meatballs, you always want meatballs!”_ **

He feels like he’s talking to a dog or a small child, but it seems to be working.

**“Meatballs?”** is the intelligent response he gets.

Jack suddenly beams, sitting up and swinging his legs over the side of the bed and standing, revealing all that skin that haunt Hiccup’s daydreams, and thankfully a pair of grey boxer shorts. ‘ _Thank you God he isn’t naked’_ Jack sometimes sleeps in the nude, which Hiccup discovered one night when he ventured into the kitchen for a glass of water and was treated to a view of a completely naked Jack rummaging through the refrigerator apparently searching for milk. That incident transpired before Hiccup had begun to notice Jack in _that way_ but had still made him uncomfortable. Jack on the other hand had seemed completely unbothered and just proceeded to pour himself a glass of milk, gulp it down and walk back to his bedroom leaving a red faced roommate behind.

Hiccup leaves Jack so that he can – hopefully – get dressed, and goes to the kitchen to make himself breakfast.

 

 

**Jack**

He takes a moment to admire his roommates behind as the man exits his room. What? Why shouldn’t he be allowed to look, just because he doesn’t like Hiccup _that_ way doesn’t mean he can’t appreciate a nice-looking ass – and what a nice ass it is! Jack smiles to himself as he grabs a clean pair of underwear and proceeds to the bathroom looking forward to taking a shower. He takes a moment to consider his reflection in the bathroom mirror, checking his newly bleached hair to make sure that the dark roots are all gone – good. He widens his eyes and is pleased to see that they aren’t bloodshot despite the lack of sleep; he had a really hard time getting to sleep last night, ending up tossing and turning until 4:30. Jack strips out of his underwear and climbs into the bathtub turning on the shower in the process.

Exactly twenty-three minutes later he emerges from the bathroom, new pair of underwear on, freshly shaved (he honestly doesn’t have to shave everyday but he really hates the feeling of stubble on his chin) and hair moussed into his signature messy look.

He could go and put some clothes on before breakfast but decides to mess with Hic instead so he walks in to the kitchen clad in nothing more than blue patterned boxer shorts. What’s Hiccup’s problem anyway? He’s been acting a little off lately, and why is it such a big deal that Jack’s in his underwear – it has never been an issue before?

Astrid’s sitting at the kitchen table, coffee mug in hand, dressed in a pair of tan shorts and a purple top that compliments her athletic upper body by clinging in all the right places. If Jack wasn’t gay he would totally try to get to know Astrid a little more _intimately_ , if you know what he means. But he can still admire a nice looking body, even though that body belongs to a woman, who also happens to be one of his closest friends. A friend who had a really bad day yesterday he remembers as he makes his way over to the table, plopping down onto the chair on Astrid’s right, just like yesterday.

**“Morning Az”** he smiles at her and gets a smile in return **“you sleep ok? Ready for today? Apparently it’s important we get started _right away,_ Mr. Hiccy is very anxious to get going...”** before he can finish his sentence he is interrupted by an annoyed:

**_“Don’t call me that, you know I hate that nickname! And_** **seriously _Jack, what’s with the need to walk around half naked? You’re making Astrid uncomfortable”_** Hiccup takes his seat opposite Astrid and Jack, placing a bowl full of yoghurt and cereal in front of himself.

Jack turns to Astrid: **“Am I making you uncomfortable?”** he asks studying her face.

Astrid laughs a little _“I’m not uncomfortable; I don’t care what you wear as long as you don’t care what I wear.”_

**“See Hic, I’m not making her uncomfortable”** , two sets of blue eyes looking at him from across the table makes Hiccup squirm a little in his seat; he tries to hide it by digging in to his cereal.

**“Am I making _you_ uncomfortable?” ** Why is Hiccup acting like this? Jack tries to make the tone of his last question joking to show how ridiculous that thought is. But it comes out softer, an honest question – because maybe Hiccup is uncomfortable, he certainly seems to be.

But Jack doesn’t understand why. And now – is Hiccup blushing? It seems like he is, or maybe it’s just hot in the apartment – that must be it. And Hic is wearing jeans again, why does he always do that? Even when it’s the middle of the summer he refuses to wear short pants. Is it because of his leg? Maybe he’s ashamed of the scarring, though he really shouldn’t be. It’s not that bad, it’s actually kind of hot in Jack’s opinion – he likes scars on a guy, maybe some tattoos as well. Okay, now he’s rambling.

**_“Why would I be uncomfortable?”_** Hiccup laughs nervously “ ** _I was just thinking about Az, but if she’s comfortable with your lack of clothes then it’s fine by me.”_ ** Apparently his breakfast is very interesting since he stares at it so intently.

**_“So, Az, what did Eret say?”_** Hiccup looks up at Astrid and pours some more yoghurt into his bowl.

“ _Oh, God! Well, whatever we had is completely over!”_

She sounds angry and stabs the slice of toast on her plate with the butter knife, repeatedly. _“That…that man...”_ stab, stab, “ _…that pathetic excuse of a human being”_ another stab.

Jack leans further away from her because she is bristling now.

_“He had the nerve to claim that he hasn’t done anything wrong. He thought that I would understand, and maybe overlook this “incident” since I’m poly, and that – apparently – means that there is no such thing as cheating?”_

She bangs her fists on the table hard, making both Hiccup and Jack jump in their seats. Jack feels that he should say something to show that he’s listening but Hiccup beats him to it.

**_“Ugh, please tell me he didn’t say that? Is he an idiot?”_ **

_“Oh, he did say it alright, and he is an idiot – I can’t believe I haven’t noticed it before!”_ She gets to her feet and starts pacing around in the kitchen.

_“So, the fact that we decided – because he insisted I might add – to keep this relationship monogamous is apparently long forgotten now. He wanted us to be monogamous because HE couldn’t stand the thought of ME being with someone else; even if it meant that he could also have other relationships as long as we talked about it beforehand. Because HE thought that the trust and loyalty between us would be damaged if we weren’t exclusive.”_

A punch in the wall makes Jack cringe, that must have hurt, but Astrid just keeps going like she didn’t even notice – who is she, superwoman?

_“So he expected me to just take this in stride and accept that he has this new girlfriend. And he said – oh so gallantly – that he’ll reconsider the mono classification of the relationship now if I wanted to talk about it. And he seriously thought that I would like that idea!?”_

**_“So, what did you tell him?”_** Hiccup manages to interject when she pauses to breathe for a second.

_“I told him he could go to hell, and that he was the dumbest man ever born if he thought that I would be okay with this! I mean doesn’t he know me AT ALL?!? And then I told him that I’m planning to come over to get the rest of my things and that I wanted him nowhere near the apartment while I was there. So I’m going over there on Monday afternoon to get my stuff, anyone interested in tagging along, I could use some help.”_

She is finally standing still, breathing heavily and eyes glaring daggers at Eret even though he is nowhere near.

Jack is so glad that he isn’t Eret right now, Astrid is one scary girl.

**“Yeah, I can help you out, I only have lectures before lunch on Monday, and I can bring the car if you want – I don’t know how much stuff you have”**

So Astrid and Jack continue making plans for Monday as they finish their breakfast and put the dishes away. Then Jack decides it is time to get dressed and get going. He put on some jeans and a grey T-shirt with some kind of abstract pattern in black and white print.

**_“_** **Hey Az!”** He picks up two pairs of Converse – one red and one dark blue – waving them around. **“What size are your shoes?”**

Astrid joins him in the hallway _“uhm, they are size 7 I think, why?”_

**“You wanna switch?”** Jiggling his shoes in her direction, it’s the blue pair. **“Or we could switch one and look ridiculous – come on, one blue and one red? Huh, huh?”**

Astrid just laughs at his antics.

_“Yeah, we could switch, but I prefer to go all blue in that case, lets save the crazy for another day!”_

Jack puts on Astrid’s red pair and wiggle his toes around – yup, same size. Perfect actually, he hopes that Astrid has more shoes that he can borrow, having a roommate who is the same size as him will be fun!

As Hiccup comes up to them to put on his own shoes – boring black sneakers – Jack waves his foot in front of Hiccups face with an exited: **“Look, finally someone in this apartment have reasonable sized feet, my shoe wardrobe just doubled! Too bad for you that you have those ridiculous clown feet.”**

Hiccup shakes his head **_“I wouldn’t exactly call size 10 clown feet, but whatever floats your boat twinkle toes”_** he says with a smile.

**“Well I would just like to say that when it comes to that old saying regarding the size of a man’s feet in relation to the size of other things”** he wiggles his brows suggestively **“I’m proud to say I’m the exception to the rule.”**

Astrid punches him, non to gently, and laughs.

**_“Oh, come on! Why is it always about sex with you?!”_** Hiccup rolls his eyes.

**_“_** **Why is it never about sex with you?!”** Jack deadpans.

Well played Jack, he compliments himself as they make their way out of the apartment.


	3. Chapter 3

**Stockholm – September 2014**

**Astrid, Jack**

**Astrid**

Astrid was bored out of her mind, the lecture had begun just thirty minutes ago but this was so incredibly dull. She was usually very attentive during lectures, even those where she felt she could have done better things with her time, she always paid attention and took notes. But today she just couldn’t seem to keep her thoughts on the subject – Theory of Science, why oh why. The paper in front of her was already filled with doodles as her mind wandered and she could feel herself space out completely.

Today after all the lectures where done she would go over to Eret’s place to collect the rest of her things and she couldn’t seem to shake the feeling of unease that came with that fact. The last few days had been spent getting things for her new room; a loft bed, desk and drawers along with lamps, a rug and some other things she had spent part of her savings on to “make the room more ‘Astrid’” as the guys had phrased it.

And it had felt really good, somehow the apartment already felt like home. It was a little weird how easily they all had adapted to her moving in but she was thankful for them welcoming her into their home. A slip of paper on the front door now told everyone who happened to walk by that “Astrid Hofferson” lived there.

Yesterday she and Hiccup had gone for a run in the woods not far from where they lived. A map and compass and they were orienteering again; Hiccup a master at map-handling but sometimes falling over his own feet in the underbrush, Astrid graceful as a deer jumping over branches but slower with finding her way on the map. They were a good team, just as they were years ago; always performing better in team competitions than individually. They had returned home several hours later; tired and partly covered in mud, but happy. The rest of the day had been spent catching up on each other’s lives as she helped him prepare lunchboxes for the following week.

When Jack had gotten home from work in the evening they had hung out in the kitchen talking over countless cups of Tea. It had felt nice, she had missed hanging out with Hiccup and even though she and Jack didn’t have as much shared history she felt close to him, he was so open and easygoing it was hard not to like him. He might seem rather self-absorbed and shallow at times but when you got to know him he had a heart of gold and surprising depth.

She looked up at the professor in front of the class, a small, well-dressed woman in her fifties, whose red-painted lips kept moving; producing words that refused to stick in Astrid’s mind. Fifteen minutes to recess, fifteen minutes to her second cup of coffee that day. She scanned the room discretely; she had purposely taken a seat in different part of the lecture hall than she usually did to avoid her normal group of friends. She just didn’t want to talk about the events that had transpired that weekend, wasn’t ready to answer question about Eret, wasn’t ready to see the sympathy and concern in their eyes; she just wanted to pretend everything was normal for a little while longer.

Astrid succeeded in avoiding her friends except for a brief exchange of words while they stood in line waiting for the obligatory coffee. At lunch she opted to sit with a few classmates that she hung out with occasionally. And everything went well until Danielle inquired about the content of her lunch box that day.

“It’s fish-stew, my room-mate made it” she answered and the girl across the table from her looked confused; thin eyebrows tilting up and small, pouty mouth slightly open.

“Room-mate? I thought you lived with your boyfriend, Eric right?”

Astrid cursed in her mind as she tried to summon up a good answer to that.

“Eh, yeah, I used to live with my boyfriend _Eret_. But we broke up and a friend of mine was kind enough to let me stay with him, so yeah, that’s about it.”

Everyone around the small table went quiet at that. Five sets of eyes; one set curious, three sets concerned, one set shocked. ‘Well, there went keeping things normal’ she thought to herself.

“Uhm, well, do you want to talk about it? Or… uhm” That was Adam, a heavyset young man a few years her elder. He held her gaze with his gentle brown eyes and it seemed like he really cared.

Before Astrid had time to say anything Danielle jumped in. “Yeah, you wanna talk about it? When I broke up with my ex I was SO upset, I just cried and cried, I was a wreck…”

“No, I rather not talk about it actually” Astrid cut in; voice slightly hard, eyes locked on her plate; willing them all to focus on something else.

The unease was almost palpable in the air, until Adam cleared his throat and said, a little too loudly: “so the next assignment, what a bore! I’m so tired of having to force myself to write 2000 words of rubbish about my reflections on something that we have already covered several times already! I’m so looking forward to the next course – diagnostics, finally we’re getting somewhere!”

Astrid sent him a thankful look as the conversation around the table picked up once more, and the subject of Astrid’s situation was dropped for the day.

The lecture after lunch was no different from the one before; the same subject, the same professor with the red lips, the same unfocused Astrid. She had abandoned the doodles though, instead tapping away at her phone as discreetly as possible.

**From Frosty** :*Hey Az, I finally found the right building I think, where do you want to meet up?*

**From SassyAz** :*Take a seat by the library, I’m done in 15min hopefully*

**From Frosty** : *Okidoki*

**From SassyAz** : * =) *

The following minutes seemed to drag out into eternity but suddenly, to Astrid’s great relief; everyone was putting away their things and leaving the lecture hall in a hurry to go outside to enjoy the afternoon sun. She slung her bag across one shoulder and hurried towards the library, finding Jack in one of the arm-chairs situated in the hall outside the university library. He looked like he was sleeping; legs stretched out in front of him crossed at the ankles, feet resting on a stool. Even though she only saw his lower body she recognized the long legs wrapped in tightfitting blue jeans, ripped at the knees – and her red Converse on his feet. Astrid had looked for them this morning but she had given up after a few minutes, settling for a pair of Jack’s sneakers instead. She walked up to him but he didn’t notice her at first; eyes closed and turquoise headphones on, he looked peaceful.

“Hey Frost-butt!” She greeted him as she nudged his knee and his eyes flew open in surprise.

“Well hello Astrid, fancy meeting you here!” He said with a smile “are you ready to get going?”

“Yes, let’s get this over with! You brought the car right?” Jack nodded as he got to his feet and they started towards the exit.

“Do you want to drive?” He asked as he pulled the keys out of his jeans-pocket and tossed them casually in her direction. Astrid quickly grabbed them before they landed on the floor and she looked at Jack in surprise.

“Really? You’ll let me drive?” She couldn’t help the grin that appeared on her lips.

“Yeah, sure, why wouldn’t I? You have a driver’s license, right?”

“Yeah, yeah of course I do!” She got a little bounce in her step as they walked along the sidewalk heading for the parking lot. Astrid loved driving but rarely got the chance since she had moved from her hometown.

Jack’s car was a Volvo V70, dark blue. Astrid slid into the driver’s seat and adjusted the rearview-mirror. “I still can’t believe you have such a nice car” she said as she buckled up and ran her hands gently along the steering wheel.

“Uh, well, it’s not that nice” he said uncertainly fastening his seatbelt.

“I think it is, considering you are a student and all. Maybe it isn’t the coolest car but its practical, and it’s almost new isn’t it?” Astrid would have loved to have a car, any car, but she couldn’t afford it.

“Yes, it was new when I got it.” He said quietly not looking at Astrid. “My parents bought it for me when I got my license. I didn’t want a car, but they insisted and this was what we could agree on – I wanted something smaller and cheaper and they wanted me to have something more extravagant.” He said looking uncomfortable. “It’s expensive as hell with the insurance you know; at least it’s a low-consumption car, relatively speaking.”

Astrid nodded remembering that Jack’s family was wealthy, and that Jack wasn’t keen on them buying him things. He took student loans and had a part-time job to pay for the apartment and everything else.

As she slowly backed out of the parking space and then took of down the street she glanced discreetly at Jack who fiddled with the radio trying to find a song that was to his liking.

“So what car would your parents want you to have?” she asked, curious.

He sighed and rolled his eyes and then said “Well, Elsa got a Lexus convertible, and Anna got a BMW – I’m not sure what model; it’s big, sleek and shiny.”

Astrid didn’t know what to say, eyes flitting between the street in front of her and the side- and rearview-mirrors as she turned onto the freeway; pressing the gas pedal down firmly and enjoying the acceleration forcing her back in her seat.

“That’s well, that’s, I don’t know what to say to that” she said with a small laugh.

Jack laughed as well, even if it sounded a bit forced to Astrid’s ears.

“I keep forgetting that you are _rich_ ” tone teasing she continued “don’t you miss living in a mansion, oh you spoiled little prince you?”

“Urgh!” he huffed “you know if you weren’t the one driving I’d hit you right now miss smarty-pants!”

Astrid snorted “you wouldn’t dare, I’d snap you like a twig and you know it!”

“Oh, please, you think you’re stronger than me?” he said in a voice filled with feigned disbelief.

“I _know_ I’m stronger than you, I could pick you up over my head and twirl you around without breaking a sweat” she sent him a look challenging him to come up with a retort as she exited the highway and pulled onto a smaller road and into the neighborhood where she had lived for almost a year.

“Ha, you wish Az; you just want an excuse to touch this beautiful body don’t you? I’m sorry sweetheart, you’ll never have this.” He let his hands slide sensually from his chest to his thighs and gave Astrid a sultry look causing her to simultaneously blush and scoff “oh, dream on!” She turned onto the street where she used to live and pulled into a vacant parking space right outside the apartment building.

“Oh, Astrid, are you _blushing_? You _are,_ you so totally want me, don’t you?” he laughed as he jumped out of the car to avoid Astrid’s well aimed punch landing on his shoulder.

Astrid knew he thought that what he’d just said was ridiculous, of course Astrid didn’t want him, and he was just teasing her. But if she had to be honest she found Jack attractive, more than that; if Jack had been interested in women she wouldn’t have hesitated about initiating a friends-with-benefits arrangement with him. But he did not need to know that.

She exited the car and turned to him where he stood waiting for her with a ridiculously wide grin on his face, practically bouncing with mirth. Astrid decided to give as good as she got, she took a deep breath then sauntered up to Jack, leaning in close to his face with a suggestive smile.

“Yes, Jack, I want you, I want you so bad!” She whispered and rested her hands on the side of the car; trapping him in her arms. His smile faltered and she could see his discomfort growing.

“I want you, take me _please_ ” she almost moaned, lips barely a centimeter from his ear, and then she gently flicked his earlobe with her tongue and he yelped like a dog that someone stepped on. At that she couldn’t hold her composure any longer and burst out laughing, releasing him from her arms.

“OH MY GOD, ASTRID! Boundaries, please!” he said in a strangled voice, a light flush in his cheeks, hands running through his hair making it even messier than usual.

“What?” She asked innocently, “Can’t take a bit of friendly teasing?”

He stuck his tongue out at her as they made their way into the apartment building.

Astrid glanced at Jack in the elevator; he was beautiful, he really was. There was something almost fragile under the façade of cockiness that awakened a feeling of protectiveness in her. Their eyes met briefly and he smiled at her; the genuinely warm smile that made Astrid both happy and slightly uncomfortable.

She’d never been able to keep her relationships completely friendly or romantic; it was more like sliding scales, where sometimes her otherwise friendly feelings were joined by romantic or sexual feelings for an undetermined period of time. She usually endured those periods, not wanting to act on something that might ruin an important friendship knowing that the feelings would fade in time. And that’s where she was now regarding Jack; the last couple of days a small glimmer of romantic attraction had wormed its way into her head and it was making her heart go all fluttery when he smiled like that. She handled it like she usually did when this happened and just accepted that she was having these feeling and focused her thoughts on the task at hand; getting her things from Eret’s apartment.

“Are you feeling okay?” he asked as she stopped in front of the apartment door, keys in hand, and just breathed for a moment.

“Yeah, I’m okay; let’s get this over with shall we?”

She unlocked the door and they stepped in to the apartment that, just days ago, she had considered her home. It looked just like it did when she had left, she had somehow imagined that he would have gathered her things and put them in the hallway but apparently not.

She started in the kitchen; collecting a small number of Tea- and Coffee mugs that belonged to her. Since she had moved out of her parent’s apartment straight in to a furnished place that she was subletting from a friend, then staying for a short while at Hiccup’s dorm room, then to another furnished sublet apartment and then finally moving in with Eret, she really didn’t have a lot of things that were hers.

Then she gathered all her clothes into a couple of bags she found in the cupboard, her winter coat and a (to Jack) surprisingly feminine tan coat was tossed carelessly on top. Schoolbooks, school-papers, a binder filled with bank-papers and other important things were stacked by the door.

She almost forgot to check the laundry basket, but from it she recovered another whole bag of clothes. Seven pairs of shoes and a bike-helmet joined the now rather impressive-looking collection of things in the hallway. A couple of neatly folded bed sheets and towels were found in the linen-closet.

Jack wasn’t exactly helping; he didn’t know which things belonged to Astrid so he just followed her around talking about whatever entered his mind at the moment.

“What’s this?” He said suddenly, tapping a metallic bar that was fixed horizontally across the doorway between the kitchen and living room.

“Oh, that’s my Pull Up Bar! I almost forgot it!”

He looked confused “okay, that wasn’t really making it any clearer”.

Astrid looked at him; hand on her hip, one eyebrow lifted in disbelief.

“Seriously, you don’t know what that is? I thought you were athletic?”

He frowned at her crossing his arms in front of his chest. “I am not unfit in any way, I’m just not very fond of using equipment; I like to use whatever is available you know. Fine, I used to do gymnastics but we didn’t have anything like this, the closest thing that I know like this is the High Bar but you can’t exactly do any of those exercises on that” he threw a meaningful look at the bar.

“Okay, I’ll show you.” Astrid shook her shoulders for a moment then placed her hands on the bar, slumping down until her arms were straight and proceeded to flex her arms and shoulders until her chin was perched above the bar, body hanging taunt and knees bent, then slowly let herself down again.

“Ah well I should have guessed that’s how you use it, doesn’t look too hard” he said dismissively.

“Really? You want to try it Frosty?”

“Sure, how many do you usually do?” he asked.

“Usually I do it with added weights, and then I do 8 reps, in sets of three. But the maximum I’ve done with only my bodyweight is 21in a row.”

Jack imitated Astrid’s previous shoulder movements and proceeded to place his hands on the bar, the feeling rather familiar and he was flashed-back to numerous hours spent in gymnastics practice, the countless repetitions of exercises to achieve perfection. He shivered and forced the memories from his mind, focusing on pulling his chin up to the bar. It was a familiar movement, and he soon fell into a rhythm that made him lose himself in the feeling of muscles working together – flexing and relaxing to make the movements smooth and controlled.

Astrid was surprised at how well he did, she knew he had done gymnastics when he was younger, but now she realized he probably had been quite good at it, his technique was impeccable and the first ten repetitions looked almost effortless. After 16 repetitions he put his feet down and let go of the bar to roll his shoulders to make the muscles relax.

“You know if you had asked me to do that ten years ago I would’ve kicked your ass at this” he said looking annoyingly unfazed by the rather impressive amount of repetitions he had completed. “So, Az, let’s see if you can beat me or if you were just bragging before!”

Astrid narrowed her eyes at him, he knew she would never turn down the possibility of a competition, that was something that they had in common; which often led to everyday things turning into a battle of life and death.

“You’re on.”

She steeled herself and began. The first seven was no problem but then she could feel herself slowly getting weaker but she focused on her technique ignoring the burning in her biceps and lats, when she had completed the twelfth repetition she kept going to 18 on pure strength of will, but after that she was done. She wasn’t quite as unaffected as Jack had looked but she was still okay with her performance.

“Well done Hofferson! It wasn’t quite 21 but still, I’m impressed.”

“Yeah, I’ve been neglecting my workouts in the last couple of weeks unfortunately” she said as she started disassembling the pull up bar to bring it to her new home. “I think I might have put on a few kilos actually, I thought it felt heavier than last time but maybe it’s just lack of practice.” She went into the hallway to add the training equipment to the rest of her things and then proceeded in to the bathroom and retrieved a scale from underneath a cabinet.

She just noticed that, yes she had gained two kilos but that didn’t really matter to her, she’d always been comfortable with her body, when she heard Jack exclaim “66kg? How? Where have you put it?”

“What? What are you talking about?”

He didn’t answer her; instead he stepped on the scale himself. “See” he said gesturing to the numbers that blinked at them: 56kg. “How can we be practically the same height and you’re 10kg heavier than me? I know I’m on the skinny side but you’re hardly big.” He just stared at her, eyes running up and down her body trying to find out how she could be so much heavier.

“I don’t know? I’m a woman, I guess we tend to have more body fat you know, and I have a lot of muscle mass; I think I’m just proportionate so that it isn’t that noticeable.” She shrugged. “I can’t really believe you don’t weight more actually, you’re not exactly skinny; more slender but I know you have some muscle on you – you don’t just do 16 chins like that unless you’re pretty strong you know. But I guess those freakishly long legs don’t weight that much.” She smiled at him.

“Well, I’ve always been all legs and arms really.” He sighed. “So, have you found all your things? I’m getting hungry and I have some quality root vegetables at home just waiting to be roasted.”

“Yes, I’m done here; let’s get these things down to the car then.”

Fifteen minutes later they had packed all of Astrid´s things in the car, even her bike was in the trunk after they had folded the backseat down. Jack sat in the driver’s seat and searched for some nice music on the radio when Astrid plopped herself down on the passenger seat, she leaned her head against the headrest, closed her eyes and just smiled. “I locked the door and put the keys in the mail slot. Now I don’t have to think about that anymore, I’m free.”

Jack turned the key in the ignition and they were on their way; on their way home.

 

 

**Jack**

They drove in silence the entire way back, just enjoying each other’s company and listening to the radio. Jack glanced at Astrid from the corner of his eye; she looked so happy and relaxed, it made a smile spread on his own lips as well. He was really glad Astrid was living with him and Hiccup; she was a fun person, always ready for some friendly banter or a playful punch. He liked that she was so much more physical than Hiccup; she had no trouble starting a wrestling match over who won one of their numerous competitions. But he found it a little strange that she was so reserved when it came to physical affection like hugs or platonic cuddles. He had seldom seen Hiccup and Astrid hug but he knew they were close friends and had been for a long time. Jack guessed people were just different; he himself was a big fan of almost any kind of touch, loving hugs, cuddles and caresses; the platonic as well as the romantic/sexual kind. He sighed and drummed his fingers on the steering wheel in tempo with the music coming from the radio. Astrid seemed almost asleep; eyes closed, small smile on her lips.

He let his thoughts wander and they ended up, as they often did, on Hiccup. He wondered what was going on with him, he had been acting weird for a while and it was bothering Jack. They had been friends for two and a half years, becoming fast friends as soon as Jack moved into the same dorm as Hiccup, sharing a kitchen with four other people. Hiccup was his best friend; he had helped Jack become who he was now, helped him believe in himself and told him he could do whatever he wanted if he just put his mind to it.

That had been new to Jack, all his life other people had told him what to do, what to believe, told him who he was. All his life he had been a disappointment, a prankster with bad grades who always seemed to disappoint. All his life he had been seen as someone who wasn’t fit to make his own decisions, seen as someone who wasn’t smart, who didn’t think about anyone but himself. But then he met Hiccup. Hiccup, who saw him, saw _Jack_. Hiccup believed in him, trusted Jack and saw him as an independent, smart and kind person.

Jack loved Hiccup; as a friend. And sometimes, if Jack was completely honest, a little bit more than a friend. But since that would never lead anywhere Jack was happy being Hiccup’s friend. But now something wasn’t like it used to be. Something seemed to be bothering Hiccup, and usually when that happened – Jack was the person he confided in, and now he seemed to withdraw from Jack instead and that made him sad. If Hiccup was bothered by something and he didn’t want to talk to Jack about it; didn’t that imply that it was Jack that was the problem? He blinked and realized that they were already home, parked in their assigned parking space.

He turned to Astrid, who actually was asleep, and nudged her shoulder lightly.

“Az, we’re home, wake up.”

She blinked groggily and seemed slightly confused.

As she reached for the door handle Jack stopped her before she could get out of the car.

“Az, can I talk to you for a bit?” She looked at him surprised but nodded as she saw the somber look on his face.

“Sure, what’s up?”

He sighed and fiddled with the car keys, then looked up to meet her pale blue eyes.

“Do you know what’s up with Hiccup lately? He doesn’t seem like himself, and usually when something is wrong he comes to me to talk about it.” He shrugged listlessly. “And now he seems almost reserved and, I don’t know, I’m afraid he’s angry with me, that I’ve done something that has hurt him; but I have no idea what that would be.” He looked at Astrid “and I was just wondering if you knew what is going on with him. That maybe he has talked to you about it, I don’t want you to betray his confidence or something – I’m just worried about him.”

Astrid kept her eyes on Jack as he talked and nodded occasionally to show that she was listening. Then he fell silent and looked at her expectantly, hoping that she would be able to put his mind at ease.

“Well, uhm, I haven’t really been present in Hiccup’s life like I used to this past year, so I’m afraid I don’t really know what’s going on in his head at the moment. But I have noticed that he seems a bit off, but I haven’t talked to him about it, I should have talked to him about it! I’ve just been so preoccupied with my own problems lately.” She furrowed her brow at herself for not having been there for her friend. “But you know Jack” she looked him straight in the eyes “if you’re worried that’s something is bothering Hiccup, and that maybe he’s angry with you; you should talk to him. It is only Hiccup who knows why he is acting like he is right now, even though you and I know him well and can try to guess but the best thing is to ask him.”

“I know. I’m, just afraid I guess.” He shifted in his seat and looked at Astrid once more. “Thanks Astrid. You know you can always talk to me, right? About any problems that you might have, I might not always be able to help you solve them, but I will always listen.”

She smiled at him and nodded “thank you Jack and you know the same goes for you with me, right?”

He nodded and they exited the car to unpack and bring all of Astrid’s things in to her new room.

It was several hours later that Jack decided to talk to Hiccup about his concerns. They were in the kitchen; Hiccup doing the dishes and Jack drying them with a towel. Astrid had retired to her room to study for an hour or two, headphones on to avoid distraction; she was angrily scribbling in her notebook.

“So Hic, is everything okay with you?”

Hiccup paused, hands in the sink hidden beneath a thick layer of bubbles, he didn’t look at Jack; instead he seemed very interested in the plate that he had previously scrubbed. Jack put the towel down and leaned back against the counter, hands resting lightly on the cool stainless-steel surface.

“Yeah, everything is fine, why?” the feigned nonchalance evident in his voice he started scrubbing the plate again, a little too vigorously.

“Well, I’ve just noticed that you’ve kind of…” Jack bit his lip searching for words “you seem…distant, I don’t know, like you are angry at me or something…” he looked at Hiccup, trying to catch his eye, but the brunet kept his eyes on his hands “…and I don’t know what I’ve done.” His tone pleading; now he was really worried, he could feel his chest tighten and his heart was banging against his ribs. What was going on? Why was Hiccup refusing to look at him? He reached his hand out to place it gently on Hiccup’s shoulder and he could feel his friend tense up when they touched. Jack let his hand fall limply to his side, it was clear that Hiccup didn’t want to talk to him and it made his chest even tighter, the feeling almost physically painful. He sighed weakly and crossed his arms to unconsciously protect himself from his friend’s indifference.

“Fine, I guess you don’t want to talk to me about it, that’s…,fine. Just… if it’s something that I’ve done, please tell me what it is so that I can fix it! I don’t want you to be mad at me, you’re my best friend, and I don’t know what I would do without you!” He could feel his voice breaking and he walked out of the kitchen, head down to hide the tears that had formed in his eyes, threatening to fall every time he blinked.

He had retreated to his room and lay on the bed, face down, quietly sobbing into his pillow. Mentally berating himself for crying, he was a grown man for God’s sake, why did he react like this? Why did it bother him so much? He wished he could’ve just shrugged it off. He wished that he could accept that if Hiccup didn’t want to tell him what was wrong then that was his decision and there really wasn’t anything he could do about. But he felt so small, so alone. His best friend, whom he shared everything with, didn’t want to talk to him and avoided him, Jack felt utterly miserable. Suddenly he heard a faint knock on his bedroom door followed by Hiccup’s voice “Jack?” it sounded frail, uncertain. “Jack, can I come in?” Jack sat up and scrubbed his eyes, drying the tears away even though he knew it was obvious that he had cried. “Mm, yeah, come in” his voice sounded as small as he felt. He saw Hiccup slipping in through the door, closing it behind him, and then hesitating; standing just inside the door, looking like he didn’t know what to say or do. He seemed to collect himself and he walked over to Jack, sitting down beside him on the bed.

“I’m sorry” Jack looked at him, straight into those big green eyes, and he could see that he meant it. “I’m sorry about earlier. It’s not your fault, it’s not something you’ve done, I promise.” He started to reach out his hand towards Jack but changed his mind and brought it to the bedspread instead, tracing the swirling abstract pattern with gentle fingers.

“Then what is it? You know you can talk to me about anything; there is nothing in the world you can’t tell me, you know that right?” Jack leaned down a little to catch Hiccup’s eye, when he did he continued “so, what’s bothering you? I can see that something is wrong, I’m not stupid!” He smiled at Hiccup who snorted at the last comment.

“I know Jack, but… I don’t… I don’t want to talk to anyone right now. It’s just something I have to deal with on my own.” He seemed to close off again, and Jack placed a hand on his shoulder, squeezing gently. He could feel Hiccup tense up again slightly but then the brunet exhaled, a shaky breath, and suddenly he leaned towards Jack wrapping his arms around him in an unexpected embrace. Jack hugged him back and couldn’t help but nuzzle his nose into the crook of Hiccup’s neck, inhaling the comforting smell of his best friend. He knew that he was probably overstepping the boundaries of normal friendship when he did, but he didn’t care. Hiccup’s arms were pulling him even closer and he could feel the words like puffs of hot air against his ear as he said, almost too softly to hear, “thank you”. Jack felt the slim, firm body of the other man pressed against him, radiating warmth and comfort.

And suddenly the small spark that had nestled in his heart started to grow, breaking down the walls that he didn’t even know was there, and he realized that he didn’t want to let go.

He wanted to keep holding Hiccup close; relishing in the warm, buzzing feeling that had spread from his chest to his abdomen and started to tingle all throughout his body. He wanted to pull the brunet even closer, sliding his hands up in to the chestnut locks and run his fingers through them as he pulled away slightly to look deep into those beautiful eyes, and then pulling Hiccup close again to kiss him; softly at first and… Jack was roused from his musings as Hiccup pulled away from him. He suddenly felt overwhelmed by these newly discovered feelings that rushed through him, and that is why he failed to notice the blush on Hiccup’s face, that is why he didn’t notice the obvious feelings flooding the too wide eyes, or the way Hiccup’s heart had threatened to escape his chest when Jack had nuzzled his neck. That is why Jack misinterpreted Hiccup pulling away as a sign of discomfort.

Hiccup rose to his feet, rubbing out invisible creases from his pants with sweaty palms. “So, we are okay now, right?”

“Yeah, yeah we are” Jack’s voice was a little breathless. “We are okay” he smiled at Hiccup, feeling his whole face light up as Hiccup smiled back – wide and genuine.

“So, I guess I’ll see you tomorrow, sleep well!” He walked towards the door, pausing with his hand on the door handle.

“Sleep well Hiccup, I hope you are able to sort out your problems soon.”

Hiccup turned to Jack before slipping out of the door. “I hope so too” he said quietly.


	4. Chapter 4

Stockholm, September 2014

**Hiccup**

Hiccup just wished this day could be over soon. He wanted to go to bed and sleep, and not think about anything. Especially not Jack. He did not want to think about Jack, but somehow it seemed like the snow-haired man was all he could think of.

The few weeks that had passed since Astrid had moved in and Jack had confronted him about his mood had been, well – better. They had settled into new routines without too much trouble, even though the week (so far) that Astrid had been in charge of food had been – _interesting_. Neither he nor Jack were any kind of experts in the kitchen but they had both learned in the years since they moved from their respective parents to cook at least a handful of dishes and also knew their way around a cookbook. Astrid, not so much. Sometimes Hiccup wondered how she had even survived on those cooking skills since she had moved away from home. He knew that when they were younger she had been a disaster in the kitchen, but somehow he had thought she had improved in that area.

Other than that things had been mostly good. Astrid’s and Jack’s competitiveness were getting on his nerves sometimes, everything apparently just had to be a competition. But it was nice to be close with Astrid again, they had lost part of that closeness during the last year or so but now they were sliding back to where they had been before Astrid had met Eret and it made him happy.

However there was the problem of his growing feelings for Jack. The feelings were not going away, like he had hoped, on the contrary they seemed to deepen and develop in a direction that made him feel like he was free falling and he wasn’t sure how to feel about that. He was trying to keep his head straight, trying to sort out how he could handle this. He had contemplated telling Jack but quickly dismissed that thought; nothing good would come from that, Jack would never be interested in him, it would only make things awkward and he didn’t want to risk ruining their friendship. Even though Hiccup couldn’t really see it himself he had accepted that he somehow had grown up to be quite attractive, yet he knew he wasn’t Jack’s type. They were the best of friends and he knew that Jack loved him but there was a big difference between loving someone as a friend and finding them attractive in a romantic or sexual way.

Jack had always been attracted to men that dominated him, that treated him as a possession, as someone who wasn’t able to take care of themselves or be trusted to make their own decisions. He seemed to attract men that mostly cared about his good looks and failed to appreciate the beautiful person inside. All of Jack’s previous boyfriends had been the big and brawny type; more muscles than brain, tattooed and radiating manliness. Hence, Jack ever being interested in Hiccup like that seemed impossible; Hiccup just wasn’t like that.

Maybe if he had heard his reasoning coming from a friend he would point out that; yes, all of Jack’s previous boyfriends had been like that, but they were all also previous boyfriends, exes – maybe for a reason? But somehow all that logic, that he prided himself in having, seemed to dissipate into nothing when it came to his feelings for Jack. So he tried his best at home to act as if everything was normal but it was hard, he just wanted to touch, to kiss, to hold him. But the days were not as hard as the nights. The dreams that kept coming, even though he tried to avoid fantasizing to make it a little less awkward to be around Jack, as soon as he fell asleep his subconscious seemed to want to make up for lost time. Every single night he dreamt of Jack. He dreamt of them doing everyday things together, as a couple; he dreamt of them cuddling on the couch, he dreamt of them holding hands, he dreamt of a lot of rather innocent things.

And then, there were other kinds of dreams, the kind of dreams that had him waking up with a mess in his boxer shorts and his heart racing. The kind of dreams that made it almost impossible to meet the snow haired man’s eyes in the morning without turning completely red.

This morning he had one of those dreams, but his alarm woke him up before he had reached his climax so instead of waking up limp and sticky he woke up painfully hard. He had laid there in his bed contemplating his options; he could take care of it where he were or he could wait for it to hopefully go away, or he could try to make it to the bathroom unnoticed and take care of it in there. He sighed and threw an arm over his eyes to shield out the faint light filtering in through the blinds, trying to think of un-arousing things. Fifteen minutes or so later he decided that he had managed to rid himself of his problem without having to resort using his hands so he gathered clean clothes for the day and exited his room heading for the bathroom only to be confronted with the object of his desire.

As he opened the bathroom door he was treated to a view of a newly showered, still damp Jack dressed only in a towel that was hanging a bit too loosely on his hips. Hiccup’s mind went completely void of anything that wasn’t related to Jack or how absolutely gorgeous he looked standing there in front of the mirror fixing his hair. Hiccup swallowed and tried to think of something to say, words – any words really – would have been good right now. But he just stood there and let his eyes roam over the _deity_ in front of him. Droplets of water lazily making their way over perfectly shaped shoulders, the display of long, slim, taunt muscles that flexed as he moved his arms while nimble fingers created messy spikes in bleached hair made Hiccup’s throat go dry. The teasing way the towel threatened to fall from his hips, the way said towel stretched over that _firm ass_ – and Hiccup couldn’t help but notice the slight bulge in front. That towel – he felt very torn when it came to that towel. Part of him wanted it to stay put, maybe even be larger, covering more of the man. But another part of him wanted it to drop so that he could stare unhindered, maybe do more than stare. _No!_ He could feel himself getting hard again and tried to hide it behind the clean clothes in his hands.

Jack looked at him in the mirror and laughed.

“Like what you see Hiccy?”

Instinctively Hiccup’s brain answered’ yeees’, but he was levelheaded enough to pretend to be unaffected. He arched an eyebrow at Jack and shifted his weight to one leg trying to look relaxed.

“Haha, yeah you know I have a thing for skinny gay men with white hair and cocky attitudes.”

“Oh, that’s what I suspected all along. You’ve wanted in my pants since the beginning, this whole ‘friends’ thing is just a ruse.”

“You got me Frosty, I confess; I just can’t resist your _raw sexual magnetism_.” Hiccup was suddenly taken aback by his own words; what was he doing? He wasn’t the one who pressed the boundaries on these kinds of conversations. Sure he usually gave a come-back or two when Jack joked like this but now, what was he doing? Was he somehow treading the line between fake flirting and the real thing? And where had that voice come from? He didn’t know he could sound so…smooth, so silky, and almost seductive. He could see Jack’s eyebrows twitch in confusion for a second before the white-haired man leaned towards him with a grin on his lips and an unreadable look in his eyes.

“Well, well, well, we should do something about that sometime!” He winked at the brunet and walked past him, going in to his room to get dressed; leaving a flustered Hiccup behind.

What? What had just..what? Hiccup went into the bathroom and locked the door, sitting down heavily on the toilet seat. What? Had he flirted with Jack just now? And had Jack realized that there was truth behind those words? He had, hadn’t he? That look of confusion must have meant that, right? Hiccup scrubbed his face with his hands, squeezing his eyes shut and grinding his teeth. No, no, no.

So, Jack had noticed. Probably, or? Ugh!

But even if he had he hadn’t commented on it. He hadn’t made things awkward for Hiccup. That’s good. Maybe he just thought Hiccup was getting better at come-backs. Yeah, that could be it. The brunet sighed heavily, shaking his head at his own inability to just let this go. He slipped out of his underwear and stepped into the bathtub, turning the shower on. The hot water cascading down his body calmed his mind a little but his thoughts kept returning to the previous conversation and also the last thing Jack had said, and the look in his eyes when he said it; it was almost as if Jack had meant it as well.

What if?

Hiccup didn’t know how to feel about that. A part of him wanted to quell the small hope that flared, stamping it out as completely unthinkable. He shouldn’t get his hopes up for something that he thought he saw in the other man’s eyes, it would only make it more painful. But another part of him couldn’t help but cling to that flicker of desire he thought he saw as Jack leaned in close to him.

What if Jack wanted him too? What if the things he dreamed of at night could come true? Suddenly all he could think of was that look, those incredible eyes. That smile that made chills run up and down his spine. Those lips; those pale, pink, lips not too plump nor too thin – just perfect. How would it feel to kiss those lips? He let his mind wander, tired of keeping his thoughts in check, finally giving in.

What if he had said ‘yes’ and meant it when Jack asked if he liked what he saw? His thoughts returned to his interrupted dream and as he let his hands run over his body, lathering up and washing off, he felt himself going from half-hard to fully aroused, and he just gave in, succumbing to his fantasies.

_In his mind he was laying naked in Jack’s bed, with an equally naked Jack straddling his hips. He had his hands tangled in snow-white locks as they kissed, slow and deep. Jack had one of his hands placed on the bed next to Hiccup’s head and the other one was caressing the freckled chest beneath him, gently running fingers over slight pectorals, teasingly rubbing nipples to perkiness._

He felt his heart racing and his breathing becoming somewhat labored as he closed his hand around his erection and began stroking himself.

_Jack stopped kissing him and moved his lips to place soft kisses down Hiccup’s neck and further down his chest, all the way to his navel and now both of Jack’s hands were teasing his nipples. He moaned and Jack laughed breathlessly, sliding one hand down to Hiccup’s hip and the other ventured upwards, coming to rest in the junction between the brunet’s neck and shoulder. Then Jack flattened his tongue and traced it slowly, firmly, all the way from Hiccup’s navel over his stomach, chest and neck causing the green-eyed man to arch his back and Hiccup felt his breath hitch as Jack whispered in his ear, voice low and rough, “I want you to fuck me, I want you to fuck me so hard I can’t walk afterwards, I want you to fuck me until I scream, until I come so hard that I see stars”. Hiccup groaned and pulled Jack into a fevered kiss, tongues caressing and teeth clashing. Jack whimpered and rolled his hips over Hiccup’s erection causing them both to moan into the kiss._

Hiccup could feel himself getting closer as his hand sped up and he swiped his thumb over the swollen head, leaning heavily against the tiled wall in the shower as he tried to keep himself as quiet as possible.

_They continued kissing, Jack’s hands on either side of Hiccup’s head as they rolled their hips – Jack grinding down and Hiccup bucking up, the feeling of his impossibly hard member sliding between Jack’s ass cheeks, rubbing against the snow-haired man’s entrance made Hiccup’s head spin. He brought his hands up to Jack’s face, gently pushing him away to stare deeply into sapphire eyes filled with lust. “Now, I need you now. Do you need to prepare?” Jack nodded and climbed of Hiccup to retrieve a bottle of lube hidden underneath his mattress. He climbed back to straddle the brunet and rose to his knees as he poured a generous amount of clear gel into his hand and tossed the bottle on the floor. “You want to do it or should I?” Hiccup shook his head “I want to watch as you do it” he replied, voice trembling in anticipation. Jack locked eyes with him, arching his back to gain better access he reached behind himself and started to prepare to be penetrated, fingers gently rubbing, pushing, and scissoring. Hiccup watched in total captivation, this was the most arousing display he had ever seen, the way Jack looked deep into his eyes as he stretched himself._

He could barely keep quiet now, and he almost didn’t care, he slowed his hand slightly and then brought it to rest gently on top of the slick head. After catching his breath for a second he then tightened his hand and pushed it downward, imagining Jack positioning Hiccup’s cock at his stretched hole.

_And Jack pushed down, letting Hiccup slide inside slowly but firmly until his ass was resting against the other’s hips. Hiccup tried his best to not buck up, fisting the sheets and gritting his teeth to avoid moving his hips, Gods he wanted to move inside that warm, silky, wetness. Then Jack leaned forward, placing his hands on Hiccup’s chest and lifting himself up slowly and then pushing down again. Hiccup laid his hands on his lover’s waist, squeezing lightly as he helped Jack lift up and slide down, each time a little faster, a little deeper. Jack moaned, eyes slipping shut and head tipping forward as he kneaded his hands on Hiccup’s chest. The brunet let go of the other’s waist and pushed himself up into a sitting position, one hand gripping Jack’s hair , pulling his head back to lick and nip the exposed neck, and the other placed on the mattress to keep himself from falling back down. Jack breathed shakily as he wrapped his legs around Hiccup’s waist, pushing the other even deeper inside. Pale hands caressed the brunet’s back but as Jack felt Hiccup thrust upwards he couldn’t help but claw at his back earning a growl from the other. The paler of the two leaned backwards, falling on his back and pulling Hiccup on top of him, he shifted his legs so that they rested on surprisingly strong shoulders. They stilled for a moment, just looking at each other, Hiccup felt like he was drowning in frosted blue eyes, his entire body was on fire, it was almost too much, too intense. Then Jack pulled him down for a kiss and simultaneously rolled his hips, which made Hiccup completely loose himself to his instincts. He pulled out almost all the way and then pushed back in forcefully; Jack threw his head back and groaned. After that there were no more coherent thoughts in Hiccup’s brain. He pounded into Jack as hard as he could making the other man moan and scream in bliss, blue eyes rolling up and hands clawing at Hiccup’s arms and back. “Fuuuck, Jack” he hardly recognized his own voice as he growled in Jack’s ear. Jack lifted his head slightly to kiss him messily then his head fell back onto the mattress again and he locked eyes with Hiccup, letting his hands tangle in sweat soaked chestnut hair. “I love you, I love you, I love you” he panted when Hiccup leaned down on one elbow to keep his balance as he reached between them to grab Jack’s cock and start stroking in time with his thrusts. “I love you too” he said breathlessly and he couldn’t help the heated moan that slipped past his lips as Jack whined and shivered. At then Jack came, eyes rolling back into his head, hands pulling the brunet’s hair almost painfully and Hiccup’s name falling from his lips in one long moan. The feeling of Jack clenching around him pushed Hiccup over the edge into blissful, blinding euphoria. His entire body shook in pleasure as he emptied himself into that tight, wonderful, heat._

As he came down from his high he trembled as he cleaned himself up, shivering despite the hot water in the shower. Damn. That had been the first time he actually, on purpose, got himself off to the thought of his friend. Every other time had been while asleep, when he felt the urge during the day he had always managed to push the feelings away, until now. He felt conflicted; it had felt so good, absolutely wonderful, yet he also felt disgusted at his own actions, ashamed, filthy.

He had managed to get ready and leave the apartment without having to interact with Jack, picking up some breakfast on his way to school to avoid any awkward conversations around the kitchen table. He arrived at the University at 9 o’clock and then spent two hours attempting to prepare for the seminar that was scheduled after lunch but he gave up eventually, accepting the fact that he couldn’t keep his thoughts on the subject at hand, no matter how hard he tried to focus he kept straying back to the events of the morning. That’s how he found himself sitting in the lunch-room, dejectedly pushing his veggie lasagna in circles on his plate, deeply engrossed in his own thoughts.

He was roused from his contemplation by a hand blocking his view of his plate. “…dock, Henrik Haddock? Are you in there?” He looked up to see a familiar pale face framed by vibrantly purple hair. “Hi, Sigrid, I’m sorry, didn’t see you there.” He smiled apologetically as the tall, skinny girl plopped down in the seat across from him.

“Yeah, that was kind of obvious” she said, cocking a carefully painted eyebrow and flipping a few stray dreads and braids over her shoulder. “So, what’s up with you, you seemed to be miles away just now.”

He shrugged “Eh, it’s nothing really; I just have a lot on my mind at the moment. How are things with you? How did that blind-date go by the way?”

He could see his friend cringe at that. “That well, huh?” he said with a laugh.

She pursed her lips and started unwrapping her sandwich “yeah, let’s just say that she wasn’t my type.” She took a bite and chewed vigorously, drumming green-lacquered nails on the table.

“No?”

“No, I don’t know what my cousin was thinking setting me up with that girl.”

“Why? What was wrong with her?” Hiccup was thankful for the distraction, finally being able to focus on something other than Jack.

“Well, I guess there wasn’t anything wrong with her per se, she just wasn’t for me you know.” She looked at Hiccup, shrugged and sighed heavily. “No-one is ever for me.”

“Aw, come on Sigrid, you are only twenty-five, you’ll find someone who’ll be right for you.”

“I really hope so, but sometimes it just feels hopeless. It’s not like there is an abundance of girls to choose from to begin with, I mean I spend most of my time here or with my friends. And since I haven’t clicked with any of my friends in that way, and you know – this” she gestured with one arm to the other students in the lunch-room “isn’t exactly a hot-spot for girls in general, let alone my kind of girls, I’m kind of at a loss as to where to find someone.”

Hiccup nodded at that, it was true the physics department at the university wasn’t exactly overflowing with female students.

“So, what is ‘your kind of girl’ anyway?” He had managed to finish his lunch and leaned back in his chair relaxing a bit.

“Well. I don’t really care about looks, but I don’t seem to be attracted to the most feminine girls, but other than that I don’t care about looks really. I want someone who is independent, who doesn’t let anyone walk all over her, someone who can hold her own in an argument. It would be nice if she’s into art or photography, since I like that a lot. And I can’t really see myself with someone who’s not smart, it doesn’t have to be book-smart, but you know...” she gestured vaguely and Hiccup nodded.

“I guess it’s mostly some kind of chemistry thing you know, you’ve got to click.”

“Yeah, I know what you mean.”

They fell silent for a moment.

“How about you?” Sigrid said, taking a sip of her coffee.

“How about me what?”

She rolled her eyes at him.

“How are things going for you, romantically?”

Oh, _oh._

“Eh, it’s not going at all.” He tried to sound indifferent. It wasn’t exactly a lie; it just wasn’t the whole truth.

“That’s too bad.”

“I don’t know, I’m not really looking for someone…” well, that was true “I’m fine with not being in a relationship.” That was, usually true, he wasn’t one to go looking for relationships, but at the moment he kind of wanted an upgrade on the one he had with Jack.

“I wish I was like that. It’s weird, I’m independent, I don’t care what people think of me, I depend on no-one but myself but still I feel incomplete.”

They fell silent again.

“I thought you were in to that new room-mate of yours.”

“What?” He barked a laugh at that. “Oh, no, not at all. Astrid and I’ve been friends since, like, forever.”

“Well, friends can become something more, can’t they? You talk about her a lot, so I just figured…”

“Oh, do I talk about her that much? Maybe I do, she’s my best friend, well she and Jack are my best friends, but I’ve known Astrid since we were kids.”

“Ah, so you don’t have any feelings for her then?”

“No, well, I had a crush on her when I was fourteen but when I got to know her it went away.”

The purple-haired girl snorted at that. “What?”

“Oh, well that came out wrong.” He laughed. “I had this crush on some kind of imaginary version of her, but then I got to know her for real and it just transformed into friendship, I love her, I really do, but we’re just friends.”

“You know, despite everything I’ve heard about this girl I don’t know what she looks like, I’m curios. Do you have a picture?”

“Uh, yeah, I think I do.” He pulled out his phone and began scrolling through the photos, quickly finding one of Astrid and Jack. “Here” he said holding his phone out to Sigrid.

“Uhm, what are they doing?” she said with a disbelieving smile.

“They had made a bet over something that I can’t even remember, and then they were disagreeing as to who won the bet so – naturally – they just had to wrestle for it” he explained smiling fondly.

Sigrid looked more closely at the photo depicting a slim white-haired man lying on his back with a slight scowl on his handsome face, and an athletic blond girl straddling him, big smile on her face and arms held above her head in a victorious pose.

“Astrid wanted proof of the fact that she won the wrestling match, hence the photo” Hiccup explained and his friend chuckled.

“She looks nice…” she gave Hiccup a calculating look. “You think she’d be interested in going out with me?”

The brunet bit his lip, contemplating. “No, I’m sorry, she’s straight.”

“Oh…are you sure? Maybe she just hasn’t met the right girl?” She sounded hopeful and Hiccup felt bad about disappointing her.

“I’m sorry Sigrid, she’s tried dating girls but she said it’s not for her.”

“Oh. Well, that’s too bad.” She handed the phone back.

“You know, Jack’s having a birthday party next month, you should come! Maybe you’ll meet someone interesting!”

“Really? But I don’t know him; won’t it be weird if I come?”

“Nah, he likes meeting new people, and it’s very informal.”

“Oh, ok why not?” They smiled at each other and decided it was time to get going, they only had a few minutes left until the seminar was scheduled to start. 

As they walked together Hiccup was once again struck by how people always seemed to stare at Sigrid, she was tall, even taller than him when she wore her platform shoes like she did today, and thin as a twig. Always dressed in black and arms covered in tattoos, she even had a few stars scattered on her neck all the way up behind her left ear. She was a striking person and quite different from all the other students at their department, but Hiccup didn’t mind; he had attended the art-program in high school and there that kind of appearance was more common than the neutral look he himself sported.

He knew that Sigrid had the same background as him and that was one of the reasons they got along so well. She had taken a sabbatical last year to complete a one-year photography course; it was after that that she had joined Hiccup’s class. He was actually considering taking a sabbatical himself, sure he didn’t have that long until he had completed his Master’s but he was afraid that once he was done with it he would feel obligated to start working right away and that wasn’t something he was looking forward to. He had always felt torn between art and science and now that he had studied physics for three years he was kind of longing for more artistic challenges; even though he spent a lot of his free time sketching and painting it just wasn’t the same as doing it fulltime. He planned on completing the semester that had just started but then he was contemplating taking six or twelve months off before enrolling on his final year at the university.

The seminar was just as boring as he had suspected, but since it was compulsory he sat there trying to look like he was paying attention; occasionally saying something to show that he had read the papers they had been assigned.

Three hours later he found himself outside unlocking his bike as his phone started ringing causing him to flinch slightly from the sudden noise and nicking his finger on the keys by accident. He hissed in pain as he unlocked the phone and brought it to his ear.

“Hello?”

“Well hello there Henrik!”

“Hey, Fish!” He could hear the other huff at the nickname.

“Henrik, don’t you think we’re too old to use those nicknames?”

Hiccup laughed. “Nope, you’ll always be Fishlegs to me.”

“Ugh!”

“Fine, so what’s up with you Fredrik?”

“Oh, well I got an e-mail from Astrid saying that she had changed her address and that she has moved in with you and Jack.”

“Yeah, she has, she moved in a couple of weeks ago.”

“Oh, okay.”

Silence.

Hiccup put his helmet on and started walking, leading his bike with one hand and holding the phone with the other.

“Uh, so Astrid lives with you now?”

“Yes.”

“Uhum” he sounded confused.

“Mm?”

“Uh…”

“Okay, seriously Fi…Fredrik, what’s the matter?”

“Nothing, nothing. Nothing is the matter!”

“Okay…?” Hiccup was starting to get a little annoyed at his old friend, seriously what was up with Fishlegs? “What’s up Fish?”

He heard the other sigh “well, are you two a couple now then?”

Hiccup stopped in his tracks. “What? No, we’re not a couple, why would we be a couple all of a sudden?” He heard that he sounded annoyed, and he was, why was everyone thinking he liked Astrid today?

He heard Fishlegs stutter as he tried to find the right words. “Uh, uh, I don’t know, I just thought…”

“You just thought that since my friend moved in with me and my room-mate we just had to be a couple? I don’t get it, I really don’t. Just because you have a girlfriend doesn’t mean everyone else has to pair up you know?”

“I…I’m sorry, I just thought… never mind.”

Hiccup waited, he knew that if he waited long enough Fishlegs would get uncomfortable and start babbling again, and sure enough.

“I just thought that maybe she left Eret for you.”

“Oh. My. God.” Hiccup couldn’t help but laugh at that. “Why on earth would that… I mean… how? What? How? What made you come to that conclusion?”

“I don’t know, I just… I don’t know.” Now Fishlegs was laughing too. “I’m sorry Hi…Henrik, I don’t know why I thought that…I don’t’ know…it doesn’t make any sense… sorry! You know how my brain tends to get away from me sometimes.”

Hiccup chuckled “yeah, I do know that. And seriously Fish, what’s with this ‘Henrik’ business, I’m fine with Hiccup, why this sudden need to be all…all grown-up?”

“Oh, well, I just… since I’m with Felicia now…”

“Yeah?”

“I just want to act like an adult.”

“And adults don’t have nicknames?”

“I hardly think an adult would be called ‘Fishlegs’ or ‘Fish’.”

“Uhuh, and did Felicia commented on that or what?”

“No, no, of course not!”

“So what’s the problem then?”

“Well, when we do things together with her friends I just feel like I’m a kid hanging out with the grown-ups.” His voice was uncharacteristically hesitant .

“Oh. But are you sure they see it that way? Don’t you think it’s mostly your own interpretation of the situation? I don’t think they see you as a kid, I mean she’s only five years…”

“Seven years, she’s seven years older than me...”

“…she’s only seven years older than you, it’s not like she’s your parents’ age?”

“No, but…”

“Come on Fish…” he tried to cheer his friend up “whenever I meet her I can’t believe that you and her aren’t the same age, you seem older than twenty four and she doesn’t look a day over twenty five. Don’t overthink everything!”

“Mhm, I know, I know. I do tend to overanalyze things a bit don’t I?”

“Haha, yeah, one could say that.” Hiccup could hear that his friend had started to relax a bit and a companionable silence settled between them.

“We are moving in together.” It came out a little breathless and tapered off into a nervous giggle.

“You are? That’s great, I’m so happy for you!”

“Thanks! I’m really happy for me too!”

“That’s great Fishlegs.” He smiled fondly to himself and they continued talking for a while longer before Hiccup finally wrapped it up by saying he needed to get home and if he didn’t end the call it would take him at least an hour by foot.

The bike ride home was uneventful and he found himself outside the apartment door less then fifteen minutes after saying good-bye to Fishlegs. He just stood there for a minute or two, steeling himself before coming face to face with Jack. Okay, he could do this. It’s just Jack.

Nothing to be nervous about.

It’s just Jack.

Just. Jack.

_Jack_.

He could act normal, he really could.

He really, really could.

 

He really, really could _not_.

 

He took a deep breath and went inside. “Hey, anybody home?” Off course somebody is home he berated himself, the apartment door was unlocked. “Yeah!” and “Heeeeelloo Hiccup!” greeted him from the living room.

He removed his shoes and helmet and carried his bike into his room and placed it underneath his bed, as always. Then he made his way in to the living room, trying to act casual.

Jack and Astrid were lounging on the couch, feet propped up on the coffee table.

“Jack, hi Jack…hi Jack…hi!” Smooth.

Jack looked at him, a small smile playing on his lips. “Hi…Hiccup! Nice helmet-hair dude!”

Astrid snorts at the comment and can’t help but laugh at Hiccup’s reaction. Suddenly he is a flurry of hands fluffing and smoothing out his hair, not stopping for almost an entire minute. Jack and Astrid just stare at him.

“You okay Hic?”

“Mhm, yeah, I’m good, I’m good” he flop’s down in the arm-chair trying to look nonchalant.

“Oookay” Astrid doesn’t look convinced.

“Sure, if you say so” neither does Jack.

“Fishlegs called, he wanted me to say hello” Hiccup said to Astrid.

“Oh, he did? That’s nice, I haven’t heard from him in a while, how is he?”

“He’s good, I think. He called because he got your e-mail about moving here.” He started laughing. “And he was just wondering if we were a couple now.”

“What?!? Oh my God, whatever gave him that idea?” Astrid sat up straight and her eyebrows shot up, disappearing behind messy bangs. Jack just laughed, short bubbly bursts of laughter that made him bounce in his seat.

“I have no idea. He thought that maybe you had left Eret for me, don’t ask me why. I set him straight though.”

“Well, that’s Fishlegs for you, isn’t it?”

“Yeah.”

“Huh, sometimes I just wonder what goes on in his head.”

“Yeah, I don’t think even he knows that.”He scratches the back of his head absentmindedly.

“He and Felicia are moving in together, he seemed really happy.”

“Oh, they are? That’s nice. How long have they been together now?”

Hiccup shrugged “I don’t know? A year?”

“Is it that long?”

He shrugged again to show that he really has no idea. And then they just sit there for a while in silence, content with just being in each other’s company. Hiccup stretched his legs out and placed his feet on the armrest of the couch next to Jack.

The pale man wrinkled his nose, mischief sparkling in his eyes “yuck, you smell!”

“I do not smell!”

“Do too!”

“Do not!”

Astrid threw her hands up in annoyance. “Dear Lord, how old are you two?”

“Older than you!” Jack threw back at her as he grabbed Hiccup’s right foot and started poking the underside of it causing the brunet to flail and squeal.

“Stop, stop, stohohohoop!” He laughed as he squirmed; trying to get his foot free without accidentally kicking Jack too hard in the process.

“I will never stop, you have to surrender!”

Hiccup was laughing so hard that he almost couldn’t breathe and suddenly he found that he had wriggled himself out of the chair and down onto the floor. Before he could catch his breath Jack lunged from the couch onto Hiccup, straddling him and pinning his hands above his head in an attempt to keep him from escaping the snow-haired man’s tickle-attack.

Suddenly Hiccup was all too aware of the position they were in, and how much it resembled a clothed, more innocent version of his previous fantasy. He went completely still and he could feel the heat radiating from where Jack touched him, it felt like sparks igniting wherever they came in contact with each other. He swallowed.

“Do you surrender to the tickle-master?” Jack leaned over him; his face was so close, _so close_ to Hiccup’s. Hiccup felt like he was drowning in oceans of blue, he tried to talk but the other man had stolen the words from his lips just by looking at him. Jack smirked and Hiccup’s heart skipped a beat. Dear Gods above – he was in trouble wasn’t he? Big, big trouble.

“Huh?”

“I said: Do. You. Surrender?” He accentuated each word by nudging his knees in the brunet’s ribs making the man underneath him wriggle instinctively to try to get away.

“No, noooooo, I won’t. Ever….ahahahaaa, I won’t surrender!”

“Really? Then what am I supposed to do with you?” Jack’s voice was low and a little breathless from the struggle, it made Hiccup shiver and he felt something stirring south of his abdomen, just where Jack was resting against him.

_Oh no._

He tried to arch his back and lean sideways in an attempt to throw Jack of but the smaller man was stronger than he looked and he just adjusted himself on top of Hiccup, not letting go of the brunet’s hands no matter how he thrashed and squirmed. “Damnit Jack, get off me!”

“No!”

“Get off!” Hiccup rolled his hips resulting in delicious friction between his groin and Jack’s butt; he could barely stop the moan that threatened to escape at that feeling.

“Say that you’ll surrender” was Jack deliberately sliding a little downwards on top of him? It didn’t matter if it was intentional or not, it had the same effect. Hiccup was becoming desperate now, Jack really needed to move off of him soon otherwise there was no way that he wouldn’t notice what was happening in the brunet’s pants.

“Astrid...help me…please!”

Astrid just laughed at him. “Help you with what?” He could see her sitting on the couch, arms crossed and an amused smirk on her lips.

“Aaaastrid. Get him off me!” He didn’t care if he sounded like a whiny child.

“I don’t know. I like this view, it’s kind of hot.”

“ASTRID!?” Hiccup’s voice came out in a high-pitched squeak. Jack just laughed, shoulders bobbing in mirth and he leaned forward resting his forehead in the crook of Hiccup’s neck as he chuckled, the brunet felt Jack’s breath tickling slightly against his collarbone. They were still for a few moments and Hiccup thought that Jack had decided to let him be but just when he thought he was safe, Jack let go of his hands and quickly jabbed his fingers into his friend’s armpits. The result was instantaneous; Hiccup’s entire body convulsed and he couldn’t even breathe as Jack let his fingers dance up and down his chest.

“Okay, fine, you big baby!” Astrid got up and tackled Jack to the floor, pinning him down the same way he had previously captured Hiccup. Hiccup scrambled to a sitting position, leaning heavily against the armchair and readjusting his half-boner quickly before the other two would notice. He looked at Jack and Astrid who seemed to be engaged in some kind of staring competition; eyes locked and brows furrowed in concentration. Suddenly Jack started flopping around like a fish out of water but Astrid stayed put even though she grunted slightly from the effort. After a minute or so of wrestling they calmed down, breathing heavily, and when Astrid relaxes for a second Jack seizes the opportunity. He bucks his hips up with force which sends Astrid falling forward, barely managing to stop herself before her face collides with Jack’s. They freeze, noses almost touching. Hiccup’s breath catches in his throat. They look like they are about to kiss; lips just centimeters apart, two pairs of eyes lost in each other.

It’s in that moment that Hiccup realizes something. He is seeing the man he has a huge crush on, looking like he is about to kiss someone else, he should be jealous – but he isn’t. To his amazement he is struck by the realization that he actually wants them to kiss. He wants them to kiss because the mere thought of seeing that happen makes his heart race and his head spin.

Wow, okay that’s new.

That’s a revelation he needs to process later, when he’s alone, when he isn’t looking at his two best friends entangled and breathless. Okay, okay… calm down. Calm breaths, inhale and exhale.

And that’s when Jack breaks the tension by licking Astrid’s cheek, not in a sensual way, but in the way a dog licks it’s human – a sloppy wet stroke of his tongue that makes Astrid leap back and stare as Jack smirks at her.

“Seriously Jack? Wasn’t it you who thought licking would be a violation of boundaries?”

“Eh” Jack said, laughing.

“You’ve discussed if licking is a violation of boundaries or not? What are you two even doing when I’m not around?” He felt conflicted, confused and a little lightheaded. This day had just been too much for him.

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Jack wiggled his eyebrows as he scrambled from the floor and dusted himself of. “I’ll just start preparing dinner then.”

Astrid shook her head ruefully as the pale man walked past her on his way to the kitchen.

“I’ll help you” she said as she followed him, leaving Hiccup alone with his thoughts.

The rest of the evening was spent eating dinner, washing dishes and watching reruns of sitcoms that they all had seen several times before. All in all it’s a rather uneventful Thursday night, but later that night as he lies in his bed, Hiccup’s mind is filled with images of Astrid and Jack kissing and he can’t seem to untangle the confusing emotions that those images induce in him.


End file.
